No evidence of citation bias as a determinant of STEM gender disparities in US biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology research

The lack of females in many Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in the USA is an ongoing concern, with many initiatives attempting to redress this imbalance. Some life sciences are apparently areas of relatively good practice, with higher proportions of female researchers...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScientometrics Vol. 121; no. 3; pp. 1793 - 1801
Main Authors Thelwall, Mike, Nevill, Tamara
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2019
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Authoring
Bibliometrics
Biochemistry
Biology
Biophysics
Biotechnology
Citation analysis
Computer Science
Developmental biology
Endocrinology
Females
Gender
Gender aspects
Genetics
Information Storage and Retrieval
Library Science
Molecular biology
Regression analysis
Sex differences
United States > US
Life sciences
Gender bias
Citation analysis
Bibliometrics
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Summary:The lack of females in many Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in the USA is an ongoing concern, with many initiatives attempting to redress this imbalance. Some life sciences are apparently areas of relatively good practice, with higher proportions of female researchers than most other STEM subjects. This paper assesses gender differences in research contributions to 14 biochemistry, genetics or molecular biology specialisms in the USA 1996–2014/8, seeking evidence of trends in publishing and citation impact that may give insights into female success. With four exceptions (biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology, and structural biology), the fields achieved or maintained at least 40% female first authors by 2018, with developmental biology and endocrinology both attaining female first author majorities. A regression analysis found close to gender parity overall in citation impact but a small male first author citation advantage in more fields than the opposite: an up to 3% increase in logged citation ratio to the world mean. This was partly due to males first authoring with larger teams. Fields with relatively many females did not favour female-led research with more citations, however.
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ISSN:0138-9130
1588-2861
DOI:10.1007/s11192-019-03271-0