Alternative metrics, traditional problems? Assessing gender dynamics in the altmetrics of political science - European Political Science

Altmetrics are an emerging form of bibliometric measurement that capture the online dimension of scholarly exchange. Against the backdrop of both a higher education landscape increasingly focused on quantifying research productivity and impact, as well as literature emphasising the need to address gender bias in the discipline, we consider whether and how altmetrics (re)produce gendered dynamics in political science. Using a novel dataset on the Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS) of political science research, we investigate two questions: Do AAS vary by gender? And how do AAS relate to gendered social media dynamics? We find that AAS reproduce gendered dynamics found in disciplinary publication and citation practices. For example, journal articles authored exclusively by female scholars score 27% lower on average than exclusively male-authored outputs. However, men are also more likely to write articles with an AAS of zero. These patterns are shaped by the presence of high-scoring male “superstars” whose research attracts much online attention. Complementing existing scholarship, we show that the AAS closely overlaps with virality dynamics on Twitter. We suggest that these gendered dynamics may be hidden behind the seemingly neutral, technical character of altmetrics, which is worrisome where they are used to evaluate scholarship.

Gender Representation Among Editors of Major Pediatric Journals

This cross-sectional study analyzes inequities in the gender of editors for 3 major pediatric journals.

Gendered publication patterns in Socio-Economic Review

Abstract. Creating interdisciplinary dialog in the field of socio-economics cannot be separated from the social diversity among scholarly voices within its comm

REF 2021: female academics ‘much less likely’ to be submitted

Ethnicity and disability status also significant factors influencing likelihood of researchers being submitted, report finds

Altmetric scores in Political Science are gendered – does it matter?

Altmetrics are generally seen as indicators for online engagement and attention. However, taking the field of political science as an example, Gustav Meibauer, Kiran Phull, Audrey Alejandro and Gok…

Science’s gender gap: the shocking data that reveal its true extent

Analysis of which researchers publish, get credit, move around, get funding, collaborate and receive citations shows how deeply ingrained the bias against women is.

How Has COVID-19 Impacted Research Production in Economics and Finance?

Abstract. Following the onset of COVID-19, research production in economics and finance (measured by the posting of working papers) increased by 29$\%$. Product

The lost women of early analytic philosophy | Aeon Essays

Twin forces marginalised the women of early analytic philosophy. Correct those mistakes, and the next generation benefits

Women in Scholarly Publishing

Women in Scholarly Publishing explores the under-researched topic of gender and scholarly publishing. While often considered separately, the relationship between gender and scholarly publishing has been neglected. Bringing together experts across applied linguistics, this book brings to the fore the challenges and opportunities faced by female academics in both Anglophone and non-Anglophone contexts as they participate in the production and dissemination of knowledge. Contributors show how female scholars’ production and dissemination of knowledge intersect with gendered structures and disciplinary cultures in complex ways. The key strands of work that this volume seeks to bring together include essentialism in gender studies and alternative perspectives on how gender should be viewed and studied in knowledge production and dissemination; the specific ways in which the labour and conditions surrounding scholarly publication are gendered or perceived as gendered; the examination of discourses, texts and genres from a gender perspective; and the continuing gendered and gendering impacts on career trajectories of women academics. While women’s barriers are documented across geopolitical contexts, the book also shows how norms, policies and practices can be challenged and alternative futures imagined. The book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, institutional decision-makers, writing mentors, early-career scholars and graduate students in a variety of fields.

Overemphasis on publications may disadvantage historically excluded groups in STEM before and during COVID-19: A North American survey-based study

Publishing is a strong determinant of academic success and there is compelling evidence that identity may influence the academic writing experience and writing output. However, studies rarely quantitatively assess the effects of major life upheavals on trainee writing. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced unprecedented life disruptions that may have disproportionately impacted different demographics of trainees. We analyzed anonymous survey responses from 342 North American environmental biology graduate students and postdoctoral scholars (hereafter trainees) about scientific writing experiences to assess: (1) how identity interacts with scholarly publication totals and (2) how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced trainee perceptions of scholarly writing productivity and whether there were differences among identities. Interestingly, identity had a strong influence on publication totals, but it differed by career stage with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars often having opposite results. We found that trainees identifying as female and those with chronic health conditions or disabilities lag in publication output at some point during training. Additionally, although trainees felt they had more time during the pandemic to write, they reported less productivity and motivation. Trainees who identified as female; Black, Indigenous, or as a Person of Color [BIPOC]; and as first-generation college graduates were much more likely to indicate that the pandemic affected their writing. Disparities in the pandemic’s impact on writing were most pronounced for BIPOC respondents; a striking 85% of BIPOC trainees reported that the pandemic affected their writing habits, and overwhelmingly felt unproductive and unmotivated to write. Our results suggest that the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on writing output may only heighten the negative effects commonly reported amongst historically excluded trainees. Based on our findings, we encourage the academy to consider how an overemphasis on publication output during hiring may affect historically excluded groups in STEM—especially in a post-COVID-19 era.

Beyond essentialism | 9 | Situating gender and academic publishing | L

Is it possible to say anything meaningful about women and academic publishing without falling into essentialist traps? This chapter unpacks the notion of

Author gender and citation categorization: a study of high-impact medical journals - Scientometrics

The number of citations is one of the main bibliometric indicators. However, not all citations can be considered equivalent; scite ( https://scite.ai/ ), a new tool based on artificial intelligence, was developed to determine whether citations are positive, negative or neutral. We assessed whether publications first/last authored by women were more often cited positively (or negatively) than those first/last authored by men. Using the 2021 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) impact factor, we selected the ten highest impact journals in nine medical disciplines. Using Web of Science, we extracted all research and review articles published between January 2012 and December 2021 in these journals. We used Namsor to determine first/last authors’ gender and scite to categorize article citations as positive (“supporting”), negative (“contradicting”), neutral (“mentioning”) and “unclassified”. There were 141,921 articles in the database, of which 116,204 had unabbreviated first/last names. We found that the proportion of positive and negative citations was higher for publications whose first/last authors were women (vs. men), while the opposite was true for neutral citations. This is the first study to our knowledge to document the association between gender and citation type. Further research is needed in the future to investigate the reasons for these gender differences, and to assess whether the type of citation is also associated with the gender of the citing author.

Women Are Underrepresented Among Authors of Retracted Publications: Retrospective Study of 134 Medical Journals

We examined the gender distribution of authors of retracted articles in 134 medical journals across 10 disciplines, compared it with the gender distribution of authors of all published articles, and found that women were underrepresented among authors of retracted articles, and, in particular, of articles retracted for misconduct.

Do male and female authors employ different journal choice strategies? - Scientometrics

Compared to their male colleagues, female scientists are less likely to secure senior positions and more likely to drop out of academia. The mechanisms behind these patterns have been the subject of debate in recent years, entailing serious policy implications. In this project we investigate one such mechanism, namely the journal submission strategies of male and female authors. In view of the evidence pertaining to higher self-confidence and/or risk acceptance among males, it may be expected that males would generally tend to follow a more ambitious journal choice strategy. To verify this conjecture, we developed a novel method and looked to acquire a new dataset, surveying scholars in three relatively gender-balanced disciplines representing humanities (history), social sciences (economics), and natural sciences (environmental sciences). Focusing on their specific, recently published papers, we ask about the journals to which they had submitted these papers and the journals to which they could potentially look to engage with. In the 1111 complete responses we found evidence that males are not only more self-confident but also more forward-looking in their journal choice.

ChatGPT identifies gender disparities in scientific peer review

Generative artificial intelligence, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can be used to analyze scientific texts with specialized constructions, including peer review reports.

Are female scientists less inclined to publish alone? The gender solo research gap - Scientometrics

In solo research, scientists compete individually for prestige, sending clear signals about their research ability, avoiding problems in credit allocation, and reducing conflicts about authorship. We examine to what extent male and female scientists differ in their use of solo publishing across various dimensions. This research is the first to comprehensively study the “gender solo research gap” among all internationally visible scientists within a whole national higher education system. We examine the gap through mean “individual solo publishing rates” found in “individual publication portfolios” constructed for each Polish university professor. We use the practical significance/statistical significance difference (based on the effect-size r coefficient) and our analyses indicate that while some gender differences are statistically significant, they have no practical significance. Using a partial effects of fractional logistic regression approach, we estimate the probability of conducting solo research. In none of the models does gender explain the variability of the individual solo publishing rate. The strongest predictor of individual solo publishing rate is the average team size, publishing in STEM fields negatively affects the rate, publishing in male-dominated disciplines positively affects it, and the influence of international collaboration is negative. The gender solo research gap in Poland is much weaker than expected: within a more general trend toward team research and international research, gender differences in solo research are much weaker and less relevant than initially assumed. We use our unique biographical, administrative, publication, and citation database (“Polish Science Observatory”) with metadata on all Polish scientists present in Scopus (N = 25,463) and their 158,743 Scopus-indexed articles published in 2009–2018, including 18,900 solo articles.

Female early-career scientists have conducted less interdisciplinary research in the past six decades: evidence from doctoral theses - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Interdisciplinary research is a driving force of transformative and innovative science, yet it remains unclear how early-career scientists pursue interdisciplinary research paths. Analyzing data from 675,135 doctoral theses of U.S. Ph.D. graduates who graduated from 1950 to 2016, we study the development of interdisciplinary doctoral theses in the five scientific domains of behavioral sciences, biological sciences, engineering, health and medical sciences, and mathematical and physical sciences. We propose an indicator to measure the degree of interdisciplinarity embedded in the doctoral research by employing co-occurrence matrices of subjects assigned to doctoral theses in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database. This study finds that interdisciplinary doctoral theses have exhibited a growing trend across different scientific domains, and universities of varying research intensity. Since the 1990s, interdisciplinary research has played a dominant role in doctoral theses within the five scientific domains. The results of multivariate regression models suggest persistent gender disparities in the interdisciplinarity level of doctoral theses. Specifically, male-authored doctoral theses demonstrate a higher level of interdisciplinarity than female-authored doctoral theses. In addition, this study suggests that being supervised by female advisors may amplify gender disparities in the interdisciplinarity level of their students’ doctoral theses. The findings indicate the potential underrepresentation of female scientists in pursuing interdisciplinary research at the early stages of their careers. Given that funding agencies have promoted interdisciplinary research and its potential benefits, the lower level of interdisciplinarity in the doctoral theses of female students may hinder their career advancement. Furthermore, our findings indicate that offering increased support to female faculty members may not only directly benefit their career development but also hold considerable significance in promoting future generations of female scientists. The findings of this study have important policy implications for advancing the careers of female scientists.

Gender imbalances in the editorial activities of a selective journal run by academic editors

The fairness of decisions made at various stages of the publication process is an important topic in meta-research. Here, based on an analysis of data on the gender of authors, editors and reviewers for 23,876 initial submissions and 7,192 full submissions to the journal eLife, we report on five stages of the publication process. We find that the board of reviewing editors (BRE) is men-dominant (69%) and that authors disproportionately suggest male editors when making an initial submission. We do not find evidence for gender bias when Senior Editors consult Reviewing Editors about initial submissions, but women Reviewing Editors are less engaged in discussions about these submissions than expected by their proportion. We find evidence of gender homophily when Senior Editors assign full submissions to Reviewing Editors (i.e., men are more likely to assign full submissions to other men (77% compared to the base assignment rate to men RE of 70%), and likewise for women (41% compared to women RE base assignment rate of 30%))). This tendency was stronger in more gender-balanced scientific disciplines. However, we do not find evidence for gender bias when authors appeal decisions made by editors to reject submissions. Together, our findings confirm that gender disparities exist along the editorial process and suggest that merely increasing the proportion of women might not be sufficient to eliminate this bias. Measures accounting for women’s circumstances and needs (e.g., delaying discussions until all RE are engaged) and raising editorial awareness to women’s needs may be essential to increasing gender equity and enhancing academic publication.

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