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Disparities in publication patterns by gender, race and ethnicity based on a survey of a random sample of authors

Author

Listed:
  • Allison L. Hopkins

    (University of Arizona)

  • James W. Jawitz

    (University of Florida)

  • Christopher McCarty

    (University of Florida)

  • Alex Goldman

    (University of Florida)

  • Nandita B. Basu

    (The University of Iowa)

Abstract

Gender and racial disparities have greatly diminished in academia over the last 30 years, but attrition rates among women and minority faculty still remain high. In this paper we examine gender and racial disparities in publishing, an activity that is important for career advancement, but has not been incorporated adequately into the debate on faculty attrition. We surveyed a random sample of 1,065 authors who contributed a peer-reviewed journal article indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) in 2005 and at least one other article during the period of 2001–2004 in four academic disciplines representing natural sciences (biochemistry and water resources) and social sciences (anthropology and economics). We then report on the relationships between demographic variables (gender and race/ethnicity) and career-related variables (academic rank, discipline, and h-index) of these authors. Our findings show that at every career level and within each discipline, women were under-represented in academic positions compared to men and an even lower percentage of women published at each academic level than were employed at that level. Further, we found that women had lower h-indices than men in all four disciplines surveyed. Societal and biological constraints may reduce women’s ability to obtain research intensive positions and contribute to these gender disparities. Hispanics and blacks were underrepresented among individuals awarded with doctoral degrees, doctorate recipients employed in academia, and academics publishing in WoS as compared to their representation in the population. Whites, Asians, and Native Americans and Pacific Islanders were adequately or over-represented in each category. Additionally, blacks had lower h-indices than the other ethnic groups across the disciplines surveyed. Compared to women, attrition among blacks and Hispanics appears to occur earlier in their career development. Cumulative experiences with discrimination and stereotypes may partly explain higher attrition and lower publication productivity among blacks and Hispanics.

Suggested Citation

  • Allison L. Hopkins & James W. Jawitz & Christopher McCarty & Alex Goldman & Nandita B. Basu, 2013. "Disparities in publication patterns by gender, race and ethnicity based on a survey of a random sample of authors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(2), pages 515-534, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:96:y:2013:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-012-0893-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-012-0893-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. McCarty, Christopher & Jawitz, James W., 2013. "Attitudes about publishing and normal science advancement," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 850-858.
    2. Kosmulski, Marek, 2015. "Gender disparity in Polish science by year (1975–2014) and by discipline," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 658-666.
    3. Diego Kozlowski & Dakota S Murray & Alexis Bell & Will Hulsey & Vincent Larivière & Thema Monroe-White & Cassidy R Sugimoto, 2022. "Avoiding bias when inferring race using name-based approaches," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-16, March.
    4. Yimei Zhu, 2017. "Who support open access publishing? Gender, discipline, seniority and other factors associated with academics’ OA practice," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(2), pages 557-579, May.
    5. Zhang, Ning & He, Guangye & Shi, Dongbo & Zhao, Zhenyue & Li, Jiang, 2022. "Does a gender-neutral name associate with the research impact of a scientist?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    6. Therese Kennelly Okraku & Raffaele Vacca & James W. Jawitz & Christopher McCarty, 2017. "Identity and publication in non-university settings: academic co-authorship and collaboration," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(1), pages 401-416, April.
    7. Verónica Amarante & Marisa Bucheli & María Inés Moraes & Tatiana Pérez, 2021. "Women in Research in Economics in Uruguay," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 40(84), pages 763-790, October.
    8. Grant Lewison & Sameer Kumar & Chan-Yuan Wong & Philip Roe & Richard Webber, 2016. "The contribution of ethnic groups to Malaysian scientific output, 1982–2014, and the effects of the new economic policy," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(3), pages 1877-1893, December.
    9. T. Edison Carter & Thomas E. Smith & Philip J. Osteen, 2017. "Gender comparisons of social work faculty using H-Index scores," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1547-1557, June.
    10. Xuan Jiang & Wan-Ying Chang & Bruce A Weinberg, 2021. "Man versus machine? Self-reports versus algorithmic measurement of publications," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-22, September.
    11. Loarne-Lemaire, Séverine Le & Bertrand, Gaël & Razgallah, Meriam & Maalaoui, Adnane & Kallmuenzer, Andreas, 2021. "Women in innovation processes as a solution to climate change: A systematic literature review and an agenda for future research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    12. Fabio Zagonari, 2019. "Scientific Production and Productivity for Characterizing an Author’s Publication History: Simple and Nested Gini’s and Hirsch’s Indexes Combined," Publications, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-30, May.
    13. Aleksandra Cislak & Magdalena Formanowicz & Tamar Saguy, 2018. "Bias against research on gender bias," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(1), pages 189-200, April.
    14. Mike Thelwall & Tamara Nevill, 2019. "No evidence of citation bias as a determinant of STEM gender disparities in US biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(3), pages 1793-1801, December.
    15. Frode Eika Sandnes, 2018. "Do Norwegian academics who publish more earn higher salaries?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(1), pages 263-281, April.
    16. Christian Schneijderberg & Nicolai Götze & Lars Müller, 2022. "A study of 25 years of publication outputs in the German academic profession," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(1), pages 1-28, January.
    17. Luke Holman & Claire Morandin, 2019. "Researchers collaborate with same-gendered colleagues more often than expected across the life sciences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-19, April.
    18. Raifu Durodoye & Marcia Gumpertz & Alyson Wilson & Emily Griffith & Seher Ahmad, 2020. "Tenure and Promotion Outcomes at Four Large Land Grant Universities: Examining the Role of Gender, Race, and Academic Discipline," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(5), pages 628-651, August.
    19. González-Álvarez, Julio & Cervera-Crespo, Teresa, 2017. "Research production in high-impact journals of contemporary neuroscience: A gender analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 232-243.

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