Greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academia
AbstractOngoing problems attracting women into many Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects have many potential explanations. This article investigates whether the possible undercitation of women associates with lower proportions of, or increases in, women in...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The MIT Press
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Quantitative Science Studies |
| Online Access: | https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1283/96103/Greater-female-first-author-citation-advantages-do |
| _version_ | 1818288997251678208 |
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| author | Mike Thelwall Pardeep Sud |
| author_facet | Mike Thelwall Pardeep Sud |
| author_sort | Mike Thelwall |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
AbstractOngoing problems attracting women into many Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects have many potential explanations. This article investigates whether the possible undercitation of women associates with lower proportions of, or increases in, women in a subject. It uses six million articles published in 1996–2012 across up to 331 fields in six mainly English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The proportion of female first- and last-authored articles in each year was calculated and 4,968 regressions were run to detect first-author gender advantages in field normalized article citations. The proportion of female first authors in each field correlated highly between countries and the female first-author citation advantages derived from the regressions correlated moderately to strongly between countries, so both are relatively field specific. There was a weak tendency in the United States and New Zealand for female citation advantages to be stronger in fields with fewer women, after excluding small fields, but there was no other association evidence. There was no evidence of female citation advantages or disadvantages to be a cause or effect of changes in the proportions of women in a field for any country. Inappropriate uses of career-level citations are a likelier source of gender inequities. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T02:05:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1de9a615a25a44a48537e8203127043d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2641-3337 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T02:05:16Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | The MIT Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quantitative Science Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-1de9a615a25a44a48537e8203127043d2022-12-22T00:03:09ZengThe MIT PressQuantitative Science Studies2641-33372020-01-01131283129710.1162/qss_a_00069Greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academiaMike Thelwall0http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6065-205XPardeep Sud1http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3304-0469Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group, University of Wolverhampton, UKStatistical Cybermetrics Research Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK AbstractOngoing problems attracting women into many Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects have many potential explanations. This article investigates whether the possible undercitation of women associates with lower proportions of, or increases in, women in a subject. It uses six million articles published in 1996–2012 across up to 331 fields in six mainly English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The proportion of female first- and last-authored articles in each year was calculated and 4,968 regressions were run to detect first-author gender advantages in field normalized article citations. The proportion of female first authors in each field correlated highly between countries and the female first-author citation advantages derived from the regressions correlated moderately to strongly between countries, so both are relatively field specific. There was a weak tendency in the United States and New Zealand for female citation advantages to be stronger in fields with fewer women, after excluding small fields, but there was no other association evidence. There was no evidence of female citation advantages or disadvantages to be a cause or effect of changes in the proportions of women in a field for any country. Inappropriate uses of career-level citations are a likelier source of gender inequities.https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1283/96103/Greater-female-first-author-citation-advantages-do |
| spellingShingle | Mike Thelwall Pardeep Sud Greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academia Quantitative Science Studies |
| title | Greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academia |
| title_full | Greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academia |
| title_fullStr | Greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academia |
| title_short | Greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academia |
| title_sort | greater female first author citation advantages do not associate with reduced or reducing gender disparities in academia |
| url | https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1283/96103/Greater-female-first-author-citation-advantages-do |
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