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The Role of Gender in Scholarly Authorship

Author

Listed:
  • Jevin D. West
  • Jennifer Jacquet
  • Molly M. King
  • Shelley J. Correll
  • Carl T. Bergstrom

Abstract

Gender disparities appear to be decreasing in academia according to a number of metrics, such as grant funding, hiring, acceptance at scholarly journals, and productivity, and it might be tempting to think that gender inequity will soon be a problem of the past. However, a large-scale analysis based on over eight million papers across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities reveals a number of understated and persistent ways in which gender inequities remain. For instance, even where raw publication counts seem to be equal between genders, close inspection reveals that, in certain fields, men predominate in the prestigious first and last author positions. Moreover, women are significantly underrepresented as authors of single-authored papers. Academics should be aware of the subtle ways that gender disparities can occur in scholarly authorship.

Suggested Citation

  • Jevin D. West & Jennifer Jacquet & Molly M. King & Shelley J. Correll & Carl T. Bergstrom, 2015. "The Role of Gender in Scholarly Authorship," Working Papers id:7123, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:7123
    Note: Institutional Papers
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Daniel Conley & Johanna Stadmark, 2012. "A call to commission more women writers," Nature, Nature, vol. 488(7413), pages 590-590, August.
    2. Waltman, Ludo, 2012. "An empirical analysis of the use of alphabetical authorship in scientific publishing," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 700-711.
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