Early in the pandemic (April 2020) I started what became a long #Twitter thread on #gender #bias in academic #publishing.
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Update. New study: "Women’s representation has been considerably extended in the domain of [anti-doping studies] throughout the last two decades. On average, outputs with female corresponding authors yield a higher average citation score."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-024-05094-0Update. Missed this one from 2021: "Manuscripts written by women as solo authors or coauthored by women were treated even more favorably by referees and editors. Although there were some differences between fields of research, our findings suggest that peer review and editorial processes do not penalize manuscripts by women."
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abd0299 -
Update. Missed this one from 2021: "Manuscripts written by women as solo authors or coauthored by women were treated even more favorably by referees and editors. Although there were some differences between fields of research, our findings suggest that peer review and editorial processes do not penalize manuscripts by women."
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abd0299Update. Missed this one from 2020: "The last three years of reported data all show women leading men in representation in #law schools in the US. This past academic year, however, ushered in a new first: women leading the masthead of each top law journal."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erinspencer1/2020/02/11/first-all-women-class-of-top-law-journal-editors-leaves-behind-a-byline-and-legacy/h/t #ArthurBoston
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Update. Missed this one from 2020: "The last three years of reported data all show women leading men in representation in #law schools in the US. This past academic year, however, ushered in a new first: women leading the masthead of each top law journal."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erinspencer1/2020/02/11/first-all-women-class-of-top-law-journal-editors-leaves-behind-a-byline-and-legacy/h/t #ArthurBoston
Update. Our data show "promising advancements towards gender equity [in academic publishing]…These findings challenge an initial perception of male prolificacy. The positive trends extend to female-led research teams, highlighting a correlation between gender balance and leadership…Contrary to conventional assumptions, developing countries are exhibiting a pronounced evolution in female authorship rates."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157724000695 -
Update. Our data show "promising advancements towards gender equity [in academic publishing]…These findings challenge an initial perception of male prolificacy. The positive trends extend to female-led research teams, highlighting a correlation between gender balance and leadership…Contrary to conventional assumptions, developing countries are exhibiting a pronounced evolution in female authorship rates."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157724000695Update. Most journals of radiology (60.3%) fail to meet even one of the #SAGER (Sex and Gender Equity in Research) criteria. However, those that did had higher journal impact factors.
https://www.ejradiology.com/article/S0720-048X(24)00344-9/fulltext -
Update. The journal 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 & 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺 is calling for submissions on "the relationship between feminism, metascience, and open science."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/181MycZzTQ5iuHfbbpuDOE59Y-UKejLGD/view -
Update. The journal 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 & 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺 is calling for submissions on "the relationship between feminism, metascience, and open science."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/181MycZzTQ5iuHfbbpuDOE59Y-UKejLGD/viewUpdate. In the humanities, in the period 2000-2014, "male academics published 2917 books (averaging 3.41 books) and the 760 female faculty members published 1918 books (averaging 2.52 books), indicating “gender disparity” in scholarly publishing."
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-66170-9_3
(#paywalled) -
Update. In the humanities, in the period 2000-2014, "male academics published 2917 books (averaging 3.41 books) and the 760 female faculty members published 1918 books (averaging 2.52 books), indicating “gender disparity” in scholarly publishing."
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-66170-9_3
(#paywalled)Update. In the field of medical informatics, "only 25% (8/32) of the EiCs [editors in chief]… are female, while females only represent 32.7% (426/1303) of the EB [editorial board] members across journals."
https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/SHTI240364 -
Update. In the field of medical informatics, "only 25% (8/32) of the EiCs [editors in chief]… are female, while females only represent 32.7% (426/1303) of the EB [editorial board] members across journals."
https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/SHTI240364Update. "Our results indicate that the ratio of female to male authors keeps increasing steadily across disciplines. The increases are field-neutral —in other words, they are not bigger, for example, in [STEM fields]…The increases are… decelerating in time, which could suggest that the equilibrium of female to male authors may be plateauing. Finally, although the within-field gender gap is decreasing, it actually widened between fields."
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08944393241270633 -
Update. "Our results indicate that the ratio of female to male authors keeps increasing steadily across disciplines. The increases are field-neutral —in other words, they are not bigger, for example, in [STEM fields]…The increases are… decelerating in time, which could suggest that the equilibrium of female to male authors may be plateauing. Finally, although the within-field gender gap is decreasing, it actually widened between fields."
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08944393241270633Update. New study: "With roughly the same number of men and women in the world, we should expect this [#gender] gap to close in an equal society. But what we see in reality is a persistent gap in #physics over time."
* Summary
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-gender-gap-physics-stable-century.html* Primary source with proposed explanation
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-024-01799-z -
Update. New study: "With roughly the same number of men and women in the world, we should expect this [#gender] gap to close in an equal society. But what we see in reality is a persistent gap in #physics over time."
* Summary
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-gender-gap-physics-stable-century.html* Primary source with proposed explanation
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-024-01799-zUpdate. The Journal of Cardiac Failure switched from single-blind to double-blind peer review to increase the number of its women authors. Three years later it reports the results.
https://onlinejcf.com/article/S1071-9164(24)00378-6/abstract
(#paywalled)"The proportion of women first authors increased from 24% in Era 1 to 34% in Era 2 to 39% in Era 3 while the percentage of women authors serving in a senior authorship role remained fairly stable over time around 21-22%."
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Update. The Journal of Cardiac Failure switched from single-blind to double-blind peer review to increase the number of its women authors. Three years later it reports the results.
https://onlinejcf.com/article/S1071-9164(24)00378-6/abstract
(#paywalled)"The proportion of women first authors increased from 24% in Era 1 to 34% in Era 2 to 39% in Era 3 while the percentage of women authors serving in a senior authorship role remained fairly stable over time around 21-22%."
Update. New study: "Female-led [scientific] teams generate more novel and disruptive ideas. However, they tend to produce articles with fewer scientific impact [sic] compared to their male-led counterparts…Further analysis indicates that this gender bias intensifies in later career stages and with larger team sizes."
https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/doi/10.1162/qss_a_00335/124962/Female-led-teams-produce-more-innovative-ideas-yet -
Update. New study: "Female-led [scientific] teams generate more novel and disruptive ideas. However, they tend to produce articles with fewer scientific impact [sic] compared to their male-led counterparts…Further analysis indicates that this gender bias intensifies in later career stages and with larger team sizes."
https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/doi/10.1162/qss_a_00335/124962/Female-led-teams-produce-more-innovative-ideas-yetUpdate. At the Technische Universität Ilmenau, "#gender has a negative influence on the publication frequency but not on the citation rate."
https://tarupublications.com/doi/10.47974/CJSIM-2024-0019 -
Update. At the Technische Universität Ilmenau, "#gender has a negative influence on the publication frequency but not on the citation rate."
https://tarupublications.com/doi/10.47974/CJSIM-2024-0019Update. In #EasternEurope "the highest percentage of female authored articles was in journals from #Slovenia (mean = 47.28%) and a lowest in journals from #Azerbaijan (mean = 29.30%)."
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10737547
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Update. In #EasternEurope "the highest percentage of female authored articles was in journals from #Slovenia (mean = 47.28%) and a lowest in journals from #Azerbaijan (mean = 29.30%)."
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10737547
(#paywalled)Update. "[The] metric called field-weighted citation impact (#FWCI)…compares citations received by individuals or groups with the average from similar papers in the field. In 2022, male materials scientists based in #India had a 10% higher FWCI than women working in the country. The #gender gap is not so pronounced within other fields."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-04004-x -
Update. "[The] metric called field-weighted citation impact (#FWCI)…compares citations received by individuals or groups with the average from similar papers in the field. In 2022, male materials scientists based in #India had a 10% higher FWCI than women working in the country. The #gender gap is not so pronounced within other fields."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-04004-xUpdate. #AI / #LLMs "tend to recommend literature with greater citation counts, later publication date, and larger author teams. Yet, in scholar recommendation tasks, there is no evidence that LLMs disproportionately recommend male, white, or developed-country authors, contrasting with patterns of known human biases."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00367 -
Update. #AI / #LLMs "tend to recommend literature with greater citation counts, later publication date, and larger author teams. Yet, in scholar recommendation tasks, there is no evidence that LLMs disproportionately recommend male, white, or developed-country authors, contrasting with patterns of known human biases."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00367Update. The _Emergency Medicine Journal_ commits to reporting #clinicaltrial data broken down by #sex and #gender.
https://emj.bmj.com/content/early/2025/01/06/emermed-2024-214743"Despite…widely reported gender disparities [in medical risks and conditions], we still rarely see the results of clinical trials disaggregated by sex…We must begin now with better data, better approaches to analysis and better reporting…We know that authors don’t always read the not-so-fine print in our guidance, so it will be on us as editors to remind authors to report sex-disaggregated results when possible. We welcome readers to hold us to our word, assuring that this happens."
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Update. The _Emergency Medicine Journal_ commits to reporting #clinicaltrial data broken down by #sex and #gender.
https://emj.bmj.com/content/early/2025/01/06/emermed-2024-214743"Despite…widely reported gender disparities [in medical risks and conditions], we still rarely see the results of clinical trials disaggregated by sex…We must begin now with better data, better approaches to analysis and better reporting…We know that authors don’t always read the not-so-fine print in our guidance, so it will be on us as editors to remind authors to report sex-disaggregated results when possible. We welcome readers to hold us to our word, assuring that this happens."
Update. "The within-discipline differences [of h-index] by #gender are smallest in the humanities and STEM fields and largest in the medical field."
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0316913 -
Update. "The within-discipline differences [of h-index] by #gender are smallest in the humanities and STEM fields and largest in the medical field."
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0316913Update. New study: "Among nearly 35,000 biological scientists who authored their first paper in 2000, women were more likely than men to have stopped publishing after 5, 10 or 20 years. The size of this #gender gap varies between disciplines."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00021-6
(#paywalled) -
Update. New study: "Among nearly 35,000 biological scientists who authored their first paper in 2000, women were more likely than men to have stopped publishing after 5, 10 or 20 years. The size of this #gender gap varies between disciplines."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00021-6
(#paywalled)Update. There are many studies of #gender bias in academic publishing. Having tracked them for years in this Mastodon thread (and an earlier Twitter thread), I agree with this new study that "methodological inconsistencies, particularly in author name disambiguation and gender identification, limit the reliability and comparability of these studies." The authors propose a standardized "framework for documenting and reporting key methodological choices in scholarly data analysis, including author name disambiguation and gender identification procedures." This "will facilitate more accurate comparisons and aggregations of research findings."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18129 -
Update. There are many studies of #gender bias in academic publishing. Having tracked them for years in this Mastodon thread (and an earlier Twitter thread), I agree with this new study that "methodological inconsistencies, particularly in author name disambiguation and gender identification, limit the reliability and comparability of these studies." The authors propose a standardized "framework for documenting and reporting key methodological choices in scholarly data analysis, including author name disambiguation and gender identification procedures." This "will facilitate more accurate comparisons and aggregations of research findings."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18129Update. In the field of public administration, "when women are first authors, the research team is more likely to contain other women and while women are increasingly represented in coauthorship structures, men-only groups of coauthors continue to persist."
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/puar.13923
