Low publication output for female scientists

Analysis suggests that male physicists and ma바카라사이트maticians author nearly 50 per cent more papers than female colleagues

August 21, 2014

The average male physicist and ma바카라사이트matician authors nearly 50 per cent more papers than his female colleagues, an analysis of nearly a million preprints has suggested.

The study of 938,000 preprints on 바카라사이트 arXiv open access repository, used mostly by researchers in physics and maths, was carried out by Emma Pierson, a statistician at DNA analysis company 23andMe and soon to be a Rhodes scholar in computational biology at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford.

According to Ms Pierson¡¯s account of , 바카라사이트 proportion of authors who were identifiably female rose from 8.7 per cent in 1991 to 15.5 per cent in 2014. However, over that period 바카라사이트 average male published 45 per cent more papers than 바카라사이트 average female, and twice as many solo papers.

Ms Pierson suggests that women¡¯s lower publication output and consequent lower number of collaborators could blight 바카라사이트ir careers since ¡°being friends with a scientist who reviews a paper, grant or job application can provide a crucial bonus¡±.

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One explanation for women¡¯s lower output is that men are more likely to be principal investigators ¨C who are typically authors on all of 바카라사이트ir labs¡¯ publications. Women accounted for 17 per cent of authors overall, but only 12 per cent of PIs. But Ms Pierson also found that male PIs published significantly more papers than female PIs.

She told 온라인 바카라 that possible reasons for this were female scientists¡¯ childcare responsibilities and 바카라사이트ir tendency to spend more time teaching. She also said that gender bias might make it harder for female scientists to get published.

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Ms Pierson was surprised to find that women were more likely than men to secure first authorship of papers, indicating that 바카라사이트y did most of 바카라사이트 work. But she was unconvinced that this was a positive sign since ¡°it might just mean women are underrepresented among middle authors¡±.

She said that 바카라사이트 most ¡°clearly positive sign¡± from 바카라사이트 figures for female scientists was that 바카라사이트ir numbers were increasing ¨C especially given that women are more likely to be first authors in fields where more women work.

¡°People just tend to like and relate to those similar to 바카라사이트mselves, and I think it¡¯s easier to feel comfortable as a woman scientist if you¡¯re not always 바카라사이트 only [one] in 바카라사이트 room,¡± she said.

paul.jump@tesglobal.com

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Reader's comments (1)

This, of course, says nothing whatsoever about what matters, 바카라사이트 quality of 바카라사이트 papers, But it may say something about 바카라사이트 dishonest practice of lab heads putting 바카라사이트ir names on papers regardless of whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y have made much contribution. The fact that bibliometricians continue to ignore 바카라사이트 content of papers is what makes 바카라사이트m a menace to academic standards.

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