The gender gap in science: How long until women are equally represented?

Gender representation amongst editorials boards in United Kingdom surgical specialty journals

Females remain under-represented in surgery in the United Kingdom and around the globe. Gender representation on journal editorial boards is one of the key metrics of gender representation within academic surgery. The aim of this study was to quantify gender representation within the editorial leadership of journals affiliated with UK surgical specialties. A web-based search for each of the UK surgical specialty associations was conducted, followed by identification of the endorsed journals for each one. As of August 2022, data on the gender of the editor-in-chief and other journal leadership positions, including associate, section, and deputy editors, were collated. Gender classification was completed using first-name recognition, verified by a web search using the name and institution provided. Managing editors without clinical backgrounds were excluded. Ten journals were identified for the following surgical specialties: General Surgery, Trauma and Orthopaedics, Neurosurgery, Cardiothoracic, Urology, Paediatric Surgery, Ear Nose and Throat, Oral and Maxillofacial, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and Vascular Surgery. In total, 242 editorial positions were identified: 207 were held by males (82.8%) and 35 by females (17.2%). There were no female editors-in-chief. The average female proportion of editorial leadership per journal was 18.8%. One journal had no female editorial leadership representation. Overall, the number of females in editorial leadership positions is comparable to the current proportion of UK female consultant surgeons (13.7%). Journals with an under-representation of females in senior editorial leadership positions compared with the parent specialty should consider initiatives that will encourage diversity, promote greater gender parity, and champion female representation.

Representation of Gender and Postgraduate Experience Among Professional Medical Society Boards in Japan

This cross-sectional study investigates the gender ratio and postgraduate years of experience of Japanese professional medical society boards of directors.

Sticky steps and the gender gap: how thoughtful practices could help keep caregivers in science

Many fewer women than men hold senior academic positions, a widely recognized and increasing problem. Our goal is to identify effective and feasible solutions. We begin by providing an in-depth assessment of the drivers of this gender inequity. In our synthesis of existing data, we provide many lines of evidence highlighting caregiving as a primary main factor. This is not a 'new' insight per se, but a point worth repeating that we back up by a strong and synthetic body of recent data. We also believe that our analysis provides a step forward in tackling a complex issue. We then develop a more detailed understanding of the challenges academic caregivers face and discuss whether and why it is important to keep caregivers in science. We find that the attrition due to caregiving should not be seen as a factor but rather as a process with multiple 'sticky steps' that eventually drive caregivers out of science-which, as we argue, is partly also good news. Indeed, it is here that we believe actions could be taken that would have a real impact: for example, one could effectively increase and expand upon current funding practices that focus on caregiver career advancement.

Trends in gender of first and senior authors of articles published in JMIRO

INTRODUCTION

Despite progress of women in science and medicine, women remain underrepresented in academic publication. The aim of this study was to evaluate potential gender differences in women authorship in the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology (JMIRO).

METHODS

Gender of the first and senior author of all articles published in JMIRO between 2012 and 2021 were examined. Changes over time and differences among groups were compared using the chi-square test.

RESULTS

In total, 1,138 articles were assessed. Women were first and senior authors on 34% and 25% of all articles respectively. The proportion of women as first author was 30%, 41% and 36% for medical imaging (MI), radiation oncology (RO) and combined MI/RO articles respectively. Similarly, the proportion of women as senior author was lower than men at 22%, 32% and 23% for MI, RO and MI/RO articles respectively. Women first authorship over the study period remained stable from 2014 (36%) to 2020 (38%); however, it decreased dramatically in 2021 to 28%. There was a trend of increasing women senior authorship from 2013 (15%) to 2017 (35%) but decreased to 23% in 2021.

CONCLUSION

Over the past 10 years of publications, one in three first authors were women and only one in four senior authors were women. The acknowledgement of this imbalance is the first step to pave the way towards addressing underlying systemic issues related to academic publication and disparities in gender and other inequities.

Knowledge Production: Analysing Gender- and Country-Dependent Factors in Research Topics through Term Communities

Scholarly publications are among the most tangible forms of knowledge production. Therefore, it is important to analyse them, amongst other features, for gender or country differences and the incumbent inequalities. While there are many quantitative studies of publication activities and success in terms of publication numbers and citation counts, a more content-related understanding of differences in the choice of research topics is rare. The present paper suggests an innovative method of using term communities in co-occurrence networks for detecting and evaluating the gender- and country-specific distribution of topics in research publications. The method is demonstrated with a pilot study based on approximately a quarter million of publication abstracts in seven diverse research areas. In this example, the method validly reconstructs all obvious topic preferences, for instance, country-dependent language-related preferences. It also produces new insight into country-specific research focuses. It emerges that in all seven subject areas studied, topic preferences are significantly different depending on whether all authors are women, all authors are men, or there are female and male co-authors, with a tendency of male authors towards theoretical core topics, of female authors towards peripheral applied topics, and of mixed-author teams towards modern interdisciplinary topics.

Picture a data scientist: a call to action for increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the age of AI

The lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion continues to hamper the artificial intelligence (AI) field and is especially problematic for healthcare applications. In this article, we expand on the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion, specifically focusing on the composition of AI teams. We call to action leaders at all levels to make team inclusivity and diversity the centerpieces of AI development, not the afterthought. These recommendations take into consideration mitigation at several levels, including outreach programs at the local level, diversity statements at the academic level, and regulatory steps at the federal level.

Perceived barriers towards the importance and application of medical research: a source of gender disparity among medical undergraduates

BACKGROUND

Little is known about gender disparity among medical undergraduates in the developing world. Therefore, this study aims to explore the attitudes and perceived barriers among Jordanian medical students, particularly women.

METHODS

An online, self-administered questionnaire, developed after an extensive literature review, was disseminated across all six Jordanian medical schools targeting more than 5000 medical students. Student t-test and ANOVA were used to document mean differences among different groups. Linear and logistic regression models were used to find predictors of publication and number of publications.

RESULTS

A total of 636 students participated in the survey with a women to men ratio of 1.1. Women medical students report significantly higher knowledge (t(634) = 2.47, p = 0.013), personal (t(634) = 3.31, p = 0.001), and total barriers scores than men (t(634) = 3.02, p = 0.003). Moreover, compared to men, women were less likely to find same-sex mentorship (t(634) = 3.18, p = 0.001) or receive credited authorship (t(634) = 2.12, p = 0.011). Overall, women medical students were more likely to perceive that their gender (t(634) = 3.58, p < 0.001) and people's perception of their gender (t(634) = 4.25, p < 0.001) are barriers to their career advancement. Binary logistic regression demonstrated that gender is a significant predictor of being able to publish (OR: 1.645; 95%CI: 1.002-2.731), while linear regression demonstrated that gender is a predictor of number of publications (ß: 0.113; 95%CI: 0.063-0.288).

CONCLUSION

A significant gender disparity exists in terms of both attitudes and overall barriers among Jordanian medical undergraduates which calls for immediate policy changes as to produce successful clinicians and researchers.

Factors associated with scientific production of professors working at a private university in Peru: An analytical cross-sectional study

Objective: To estimate the association between the academic, personal, and work characteristics and scientific production of professors at a private university of Lima, Peru, in 2021. Methods: We undertook an observational, analytical, and cross-sectional study. The sample included 322 professors through simple random sampling. Two questionnaires were administered. The first gathered personal, academic, and work characteristics; while the second evaluated scientific production. The chi-squared test was used, with a significance level of p<0,05, to evaluate the association between the different characteristics and scientific production. A multiple logistic regression was analyzed through the Stepwise method to evaluate the relationship between the variables of exposure and scientific production. We calculated prevalence ratios (PRs) with their respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: We analyzed 322 professors, 59,6% were male. Scientific production was associated with being registered in Renacyt (PR = 5,52; 95% CI: 2,14 to 4,23; p = <0.001), having a doctoral degree (PR = 2,45; 95% CI: 1,60 to 3,85; p = <0.001), having been a thesis advisor (PR = 3,83; 95% CI: 1,45 to 5,66; p = <0.001), having facilities to conduct research at the workplace (PR = 1,58; 95% CI: 1,12 to 2,47; p = 0.006), and having received training by the university (PR = 1,99; 95% CI: 1,55 to 2,56; p =0.001). Conclusions: Scientific production was associated with being registered in Renacyt, having a doctoral degree, having been a thesis advisor, having facilities to conduct research at the workplace, and having being trained in research by the university. Hence, evaluation systems and the monitoring of university quality standards should be strengthened. In addition, it is necessary to undertake wider scope studies in order to enhance the strategies that promote professors' research.

The Latin America Early Career Earth System Scientist Network (LAECESS): addressing present and future challenges of the upcoming generations of scientists in the region

Early career (EC) Earth system scientists in the Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC) have been facing several issues, such as limited funding opportunities, substandard scientific facilities, lack of security of tenure, and unrepresented groups equality issues. On top of this, the worsening regional environmental and climatic crises call for the need for this new generation of scientists to help to tackle these crises by increasing public awareness and research. Realizing the need to converge and step up in making a collective action to be a part of the solution, the Latin America Early Career Earth System Scientist Network (LAECESS) was created in 2016. LAECESS's primary goals are to promote regional networking, foster integrated and interdisciplinary science, organize soft skills courses and workshops, and empower Latin American EC researchers. This article is an initial step towards letting the global science community grasp the current situation and hear the early career LAC science community's perspectives. The paper also presents a series of future steps needed for better scientific and social development in the LAC region.

The Productivity Puzzle in Invasion Science: Declining but Persisting Gender Imbalances in Research Performance

We analyzed 27,234 publications published since the rise of the field of invasion science in 1980 to evaluate the presence of gender differences in research productivity, the extent of collaboration, and the research impact of those differences. Our analysis revealed significantly fewer female than male authored publications, both per capita and as a group, and the underrepresentation of women as first and single authors persists despite improvements in the gender gap. At the current rate of increase, gender parity in first authorship will not be achieved until 2100, and men will continue to constitute the principal voice of first or single authors in invasion science. Women collaborate with fewer coauthors and are cited less frequently than men, on average, which may influence recruitment and retention to more senior academic positions. These gender disparities in this aspect of research performance suggest that, although the gender gap is lessening, women experience barriers in invasion science.

Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability in Japanese children

Japan has a large gender gap; thus, this study examined whether Japanese 4- to 7-year-old children exhibit a “brilliance = males” stereotype and whether parental attitudes toward gender roles were related to children’s stereotypes. We also explored whether the children exhibited such stereotypes in response to various stimuli. We showed children photos (Study 1) and stick figures (Study 2) of men, women, boys, and girls, asking them to attribute traits (smart or nice) to each. Study 1 revealed overwhelming in-group positivity in girls, whereas the results for boys were rather mixed. In Study 2, girls generally attributed nice to their own gender compared to boys. However, “brilliance = males” stereotypical responses were observed from 7 years of age, when boys began to be more likely to attribute smartness to their own gender compared to girls. The new data in Study 3 replicated results of Study 1 and parts of the results of Study 2. Moreover, merging the Study 3 data with that of Studies 1 and 2 confirmed their findings. Furthermore, it replicated the “brilliance = males” stereotype among 7-year-olds in the stick figure task. Parental attitudes toward gender roles were unrelated to children’s gender stereotypes. The results indicated that Japanese children may acquire “brilliance = males” stereotypes later than American children (6-years-old). Furthermore, the results were clearer when children were presented with stick figure stimuli.

Scientific authorship by gender: trends before and during a global pandemic

Many fields of science are still dominated by men. COVID-19 has dramatically changed the nature of work, including for scientists, such as lack of access to key resources and transition to online teaching. Further, scientists face the pandemic-related stressors common to other professions (e.g., childcare, eldercare). As many of these activities fall more heavily on women, the pandemic may have exacerbated gender disparities in science. We analyzed self-identified gender of corresponding author for 119,592 manuscripts from 151 countries submitted January 2019 to July 2021 to the Institute of Physics (IOP) portfolio of 57 academic journals, with disciplines of astronomy and astrophysics, bioscience, environmental science, materials, mathematics, physics, and interdisciplinary research. We consider differences by country, journal, and pre-pandemic versus pandemic periods. Gender was self-identified by corresponding author for 82.9% of manuscripts (N = 99,114 for subset of submissions with gender). Of these manuscripts, authors were 82.1% male, 17.8% female, and 0.08% non-binary. Most authors were male for all countries (country-specific values: range 0.0-100.0%, median 86.1%) and every journal (journal-specific values range 63.7-91.5%, median 83.7%). The contribution of female authors was slightly higher in the pandemic (18.7%) compared to pre-pandemic (16.5%). However, prior to the pandemic, the percent of submissions from women had been increasing, and this value slowed during the pandemic. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find that manuscript submissions from women decreased during the pandemic, although the rate of increased submissions evident prior to the pandemic slowed. In both pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, authorship was overwhelmingly male for all journals, countries, and fields. Further research is needed on impacts of the pandemic on other measures of scientific productivity (e.g., accepted manuscripts, teaching), scientific position (e.g., junior vs. senior scholars), as well as the underlying gender imbalance that persisted before and during the pandemic.

Engagement patterns with female and male scientists on Facebook

Social networks are becoming powerful agents mediating between science and the public. Considering the public tendency to associate science with men makes investigating representations of female scientists in social media important. Here we set out to find whether the commenting patterns to text-based science communication are similar. To examine these, we collected and analyzed posts (165) and their comments (10,006) published between 2016 and 2018 on an Israeli popular science Facebook page. We examined post characteristics as well as the relevance and sentiment of comments. Several gendered differences in commenting patterns emerged. Posts published by female scientists received more irrelevant and fewer relevant comments. Female scientists received more hostile and positive comments. These findings are consistent with results of previous research, but also demonstrate a more nuanced understanding that when female scientists write using scientific jargon (usually an unwanted feature of popular science writing), they received less hostile comments and were given less advice.

The Impact of Field Courses on Undergraduate Knowledge, Affect, Behavior, and Skills: A Scoping Review

Field courses provide transformative learning experiences that support success and improve persistence for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors. But field courses have not increased proportionally with the number of students in the natural sciences. We conducted a scoping review to investigate the factors influencing undergraduate participation in and the outcomes from field courses in the United States. Our search yielded 61 articles, from which we classified the knowledge, affect, behavior, and skill-based outcomes resulting from field course participation. We found consistent reporting on course design but little reporting on demographics, which limits our understanding of who takes field courses. Cost was the most commonly reported barrier to student participation, and knowledge gains were the most commonly reported outcome. This scoping review underscores the need for more rigorous and evidence-based investigations of student outcomes in field courses. Understanding how field courses support or hinder student engagement is necessary to make them more accessible to all students.

Gender representation on editorial boards of leading oncology journals

Background

There has historically been women underrepresentation on editorial boards of peer-reviewed medical journals. High-ranked oncology journals showcase cancer-related scientific work at the forefront of the discipline. There is urgent need to investigate gender representation on editorial boards at leading oncology journals.

Materials and methods

Sixty high-ranked oncology journals based on impact factor calculated by the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2021 from Web of Science/Clarivate Analytics were identified. Gender-related information of editorial boards was obtained from each journal’s website. The gender of each member of the editorial team was confirmed by an internet search for picture and/or gender-specific pronoun from journal or personal profile. Fisher’s exact tests and analysis of variance were used to analyze categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Significance was set at P < 0.05.

Results

Among 4898 members on editorial boards of top oncology journals with the highest impact factor, 1177 were women. Women made up 24% (1177 of 4898) of members on editorial boards in top oncology journals, and there was significantly less women board members than men (P < 0.0001). The mean female composition of editorial boards of oncology journals was 27% (range from 4% to 100%). Among 71 editors-in-chief of the top oncology journals, 14 (20%) were women. There was a positive correlation between the presence of women in journal editorial leadership and the percentage of women on editorial boards (r_s = 0.340, P = 0.008). The underrepresentation of women on oncology journal editorial boards was significantly different among quartiles of journal impact factor. There was no significant correlation between women’s representation on journal editorial boards (%) and journal impact factors (r_s = 0.226, P = 0.086).

Conclusions

The results demonstrated that there are gender disparities among editorial leadership at high-impact oncology journals. There are cultural and structural barriers and prejudices to gender parity and diversity on editorial boards of oncology journals.

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The representation of women on editorial boards of oncology journals has not been verified.

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This large-scale study found that women comprised only 24% of editorial boards of top-ranked oncology journals.

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The results demonstrated that there are gender disparities among editorial leadership at leading oncology journals.

Same-gender citations do not indicate a substantial gender homophily bias

Can the male citation advantage (more citations for papers written by male than female scientists) be explained by gender homophily bias, i.e., the preference of scientists to cite other scientists of the same gender category? Previous studies report much evidence that this is the case. However, the observed gender homophily bias may be overestimated by overlooking structural aspects such as the gender composition of research topics in which scientists specialize. When controlling for research topics at a high level of granularity, there is only little evidence for a gender homophily bias in citation decisions. Our study points out the importance of controlling structural aspects such as gendered specialization in research topics when investigating gender bias in science.

Supporting women's research in predominantly undergraduate institutions: Experiences with a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award

This paper describes the Gender Equity Project (GEP) at Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY), funded by the U. S. NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award (ITA) program. ADVANCE supports system-level strategies to promote gender equity in the social and natural sciences, but has supported very few teaching-intensive institutions. Hunter College is a teaching-intensive institution in which research productivity among faculty is highly valued and counts toward tenure and promotion. We created the GEP to address the particular challenges that faculty, especially White women and faculty of color, face in maintaining research programs and advancing in their careers at teaching-intensive institutions. During the course of the ADVANCE award, its centerpiece was the Sponsorship Program, a multifaceted paid mentorship/sponsorship program that paired each participant with a successful scholar in her discipline. It offered extensive professional development opportunities, including interactive workshops and internal grants to support research. The GEP helped change key policies and practices by ensuring that all faculty were treated fairly in areas like provision of research start-up funds and access to guidance on how to prepare for tenure and promotion. Qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that participation in the Sponsorship Program boosted research productivity and advanced the careers of many of the women who participated; the Program was highly rated by all participants. Some of the policy and practice changes that the GEP helped bring about were sustained at Hunter beyond the award period and some were adopted and disseminated by the central office of CUNY. However, we were not able to sustain the relatively expensive (but cost-effective) Sponsorship Program. We share the lessons we learned, including that creating a diverse, successful social and natural scientific workforce requires sustained support of female faculty employed at teaching-intensive colleges. We acknowledge the difficulties of sustaining gains, and offer ideas about how to make the case for gender equity when women seem to be doing "well enough." We underscore the imperative of building support for women's research in teaching-intensive institutions, where most women scientists are employed, and well over 90% of all college students-a disproportionate percentage of whom are female, minoritized, or both-are educated.

The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, an emerging paradigm of a gender egalitarian organisation

Females are underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) disciplines globally and although progress has been made, the gender gap persists. Our aim was to explore gender parity in the context of gender representation and internal collaboration at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING), a leading national biomedical organisation accredited as an equal opportunity employer. Towards this aim we (1) explored trends in gender parity within the different departments, positions and qualifications and in student representation in the CING's postgraduate school and, (2) investigated the degree of collaboration between male and female researchers within the Institute and the degree of influence within its co-authorship network. We recorded an over-representation of females both in the CING employees and the postgraduate students. The observed female over-representation in pooled CING employees was consistent with a similar over-representation in less senior positions and was contrasted with an observed male over-representation in only one middle rank and culminated in gender equality in the top rank in employee hierarchy. In terms of collaboration, both males and females tended to collaborate with each other without any significant preference to either inter-group or intra-group collaboration. Further comparison of the two groups with respect to their influence in the network in terms of occupying the positions of highest centrality scores, indicated that both gender and seniority level (head vs non-head) were significant in shaping the authors' influence, with no significant difference in those belonging in the same seniority level with respect to their gender. To conclude, our study has validated the formal recognition of the CING's policies and procedures pertinent to its egalitarian culture through the majority of the metrics of gender equality assessed in this study and has provided an extendable paradigm for evaluating gender parity in academic organizations.

Impact of gender on the formation and outcome of formal mentoring relationships in the life sciences

Despite increasing representation in graduate training programs, a disproportionate number of women leave academic research without obtaining an independent position that enables them to train the next generation of academic researchers. To understand factors underlying this trend, we analyzed formal PhD and postdoctoral mentoring relationships in the life sciences during the years 2000 to 2020. Student and mentor gender are both associated with differences in rates of student’s continuation to positions that allow formal academic mentorship. Although trainees of women mentors are less likely to take on positions as academic mentors than trainees of men mentors, this effect is reduced substantially after controlling for several measurements of mentor status. Thus, the effect of mentor gender can be explained at least partially by gender disparities in social and financial resources available to mentors. Because trainees and mentors tend to be of the same gender, this association between mentor gender and academic continuation disproportionately impacts women trainees. On average, gender homophily in graduate training is unrelated to mentor status. A notable exception to this trend is the special case of scientists having been granted an outstanding distinction, evidenced by membership in the National Academy of Sciences, being a grantee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, or having been awarded the Nobel Prize. This group of mentors trains men graduate students at higher rates than their most successful colleagues. These results suggest that, in addition to other factors that limit career choices for women trainees, gender inequities in mentors’ access to resources and prestige contribute to women’s attrition from independent research positions.

Does the gender of academic mentors impact the careers of their trainees? In the life sciences, graduate and postdoctoral trainees of women mentors are less likely to continue on to positions as academic mentors than trainees of men. This study finds that gender inequality in mentors’ access to resources contributes to this disparity.

Dementia clinical trials over the past decade: are women fairly represented?

Background

Lack of progress in finding disease-modifying treatments for dementia may be due to heterogeneity in treatment effects among subgroups, such as by sex. Therefore, we investigated the characteristics of dementia trials completed in the last decade, with a focus on women's representation and sex-disaggregated outcomes.

Methods

Clinical trials on dementia completed since 2010 were identified from ClinicalTrials.gov. Randomised, phase III/IV trials with ≥100 participants were selected to quantify women's representation among participants, by computing the participation to prevalence ratio (PPR) and investigate whether sex-disaggregated analyses had been performed.

Results

A total of 1351 trials were identified between January 2010 and August 2021 (429 520 participants), of which 118 were eligible for analysis of women's representation and sex-stratified analysis. Only 113 reported the sex of participants and were included in the analysis of women's representation. Of the 110 469 participants in these 113 trials, 58% were women, lower than their estimated representation in the global dementia population of 64%. The mean PPR was 0.90 (95% CI 0.86 to 0.94). Women's participation tended to be higher when the first or last authors of the trial report were women. Eight out of the 118 trials reported sex-disaggregated outcomes, and three of those found significant sex differences in efficacy outcomes. None of the trials reported screening failures or adverse events stratified by sex.

Conclusions

Overall, women and men were equally represented in dementia trials carried out over the past decade, but women's representation was lower than in the underlying dementia population. Sex-disaggregated efficacy and safety outcomes were rarely reported.

Authorship diversity in Gastroenterology-related Cochrane systematic reviews: Inequities in global representation

The need for promoting diversity and equitable authorship representation in academics faces increasing recognition, with some articles pointing out the lack of diversity in specific fields. Currently, there are no such articles scrutinizing the author diversity in the field of Gastroenterology. Cochrane systematic reviews are perceived worldwide to be amongst the highest quality of evidence available, thereby its conclusions often impact policy and practice globally. However, little is known about the current state of authorship diversity in Gastroenterology-related Cochrane reviews.

Editorial board interlocking across the social sciences: Modelling the geographic, gender, and institutional representation within and between six academic fields

Editorial boards play a key role in the production, dissemination, and promotion of scientific knowledge. The cross-presence of scholars in different journals, known as editorial board interlocking, maps the connections between such bodies of governance. Former research on this topic is typically restricted to individual disciplines and has failed to consider the relevance of potential interlocking between related, but different academic fields. Further, although existing studies note a significant lack of diversity in editorial board representation, they mainly focus on a single dimension, such as gender or geography. This study addressed these knowledge gaps by offering a complex cross-disciplinary approach to the geographical, gender, and institutional compositions of editorial boards, with a specific emphasis on within- and between-fields editorial board interlocking. We used graph and social network analysis to examine editorial board connections between 281 top journals (13,084 members and 17,092 connections) of six disciplines: communication, psychology, political science, sociology, economics, and management. We found substantial differences in terms of field connections, ranging from sociology with 42% interlocking with other fields, to management with only 11%. Psychology is significantly less connected to the other five disciplines. The results also show a clear overrepresentation of American institutions and native English-speaking countries in all fields, with Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and New York University forming a well-connected central cluster. Although female scholars are underrepresented, there are no significant differences in terms of positioning in the network. Female scholars are even employed in more central positions than male scholars in psychology, sociology, and management. Our findings extend the literature on editorial board diversity by evidencing a significant imbalance in their gender, geographical, institutional representation, and interlocking editorship both within and between fields.

Levers of change: using mathematical models to compare gender equity interventions in universities

Women are under-represented in academic staff in universities worldwide. Our work builds on other studies of 'demographic inertia'. We find that time will not bridge the gender representation gap in academia, and echo others in saying bold actions are required to reach parity. Our work then uses New Zealand's unique system of scoring individual research performance to test empirically which levers universities should pull, and in which combinations. We combine individual research performance scores with 20 years of data from one university to parametrize a rank-structured mathematical model using Leslie matrices. Our model compares three key levers of change at universities' disposal-hiring, promotion and attrition. We apply the model to a bifurcated population of university staff-those with high research activity, and those who are moderately active-based on their national research quality score. We then test levers in various combinations that management could pull to improve gender representation. We find that the solutions are different for the high versus moderate research performers. For individuals with high research activity, universities should concentrate on equitable hiring practices. For those with more moderate research activity, more equitable promotion practices hold the key.

The dementia research career pipeline: Gender disparities in publication authorships and grant funding outcomes at different career stages

Background

Multiple studies have analysed gender disparities in academic research. Here we study the gender composition of the dementia research field at different stages in the career pipeline.

Methods

We use various data sources to gain insights about the gender ratio across career stages: conference attendance data as a proxy for the field as a whole; bibliometric data to know who publishes, and who occupies positions of seniority among the listed authors; and Alzheimer's Research UK's (ARUK) internal grant funding data to understand who obtains funding. We also analyse the scoring of grant applications based on the gender of the reviewers.

Results

Our results confirm that female researchers leave dementia academic research at higher rates than men, before transitioning into senior positions. In 2020, they comprised over 60% of the field, produced 54% of first authorships, but only accounted for 38% of last authorships. Overall, women received 37% of ARUK's competitive grants, with significant differences between grant schemes awarded for early career researchers (64% female awardees) compared to grant schemes aimed at senior researchers (33% female awardees). Men and women applied for and obtained grants at significantly different rates depending on the career stage at which the grant was aimed.Finally, we also observed that male and female reviewers apply evaluation criteria differently, with men giving better scores than women on average.

Conclusions

Our study adds to the evidence that shows that women get published less, receive less funding, and transition into senior academic positions at disproportionally lower rates than men do. We briefly discuss potential reasons why gender disparities arise as researchers progress into senior positions, and offer interventions ARUK can implement in its application and evaluation process to address those disparities.

Representation of women as editors in andrology journals

BACKGROUND

Surveys of gender diversity in editorial boards of journals have been conducted in several disciplines, but not in andrology.

OBJECTIVES

The present study was designed to investigate the gender distribution of editorial boards of andrology journals.

METHODS

A total of eight andrology journals were included in the study, and the gender information and geographical location of editors were identified based on the information obtained from the Internet.

RESULTS

A total of 382 editors' gender information was confirmed. Women made up 1 of the 9 editors-in-chief (11.1%), 13 of the 68 deputy/associate editors (19.1%), 37 of the 270 editorial/advisory board members (13.7%) and 0 of the 35 other types of editors (0%). There was no significant difference in the journal impact factor between male and female editors-in-chief (3.060±1.274 vs 3.482, p = 0.156), and no significant association was found between impact factor and the proportion of female editor (Spearman's r = -0.204, P = 0.629).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Andrology-related journals lacked adequate gender diversity, not all journals reserved reasonable editorial positions for women. Besides, increased impact factor did not bring additional gender bias. Women should be given more reasonable seats to improve gender diversity in andrology-related journals. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

How Age and Gender Affect the Opinions of Computing Students Regarding Computer Usage and Design Needs

This study aimed to understand the perceptions of young computing science students about women and older people with regard to their computer literacy and how this may affect the design of computer-based systems. Based on photos, participants were asked how likely they thought the person depicted would be to use desktop computers, laptops and smartphones, and how much expertise they thought they would have with each technology. Furthermore, in order to see what impact this could have on systems being developed, we asked what design aspects would be important for the depicted person and whether they thought an adapted technology would be required. This study is based on an existing questionnaire, which was translated into German and extended to explore what impact this may have on system design. The results draw on 200 questionnaires from students in the first year of their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) studies at an Austrian university of applied sciences. Quantitative methods were used to determine if the perceptions varied significantly based on the age and gender of the people depicted. Qualitative analysis was used to evaluate the design aspects mentioned. The results show that there are biases against both older people and women with respect to their perceived expertise with computers. This is also reflected in the design aspects thought to be important for the different cohorts. This is crucial as future systems will be designed by the participants, and these biases may influence whether future systems meet the needs and wishes of all groups or increase the digital divide.

From Bystanders to Upstanders: Supporters and Key Informants for Victims of Gender Violence

Scientific literature has presented relevant evidence about the existence of gender violence in science and has evaluated some programs and actions against this problem. Although many researchers have identified the importance of those intervention programs to overcome this harassment, it is still a predominant reality in institutions, surrounded by the law of silence. Emerging lines of research are studying which of those programs are successful in this endeavor, and their transferability to other contexts. This research has analyzed one program: Programme of Women’s Dialogic Action (ProWomenDialogue). To gather evidence for expressing whether or not ProWomenDialogue has an impact, and whether it constitutes a successful action against harassment, the SIOR (Social Impact Open Repository) criteria, emerging from the FP7 IMPACT-Project, have been used for the evaluation of this research’s social impact. Drawing on SIOR, ProWomenDialogue shows unprecedented transformations in academia through six lines of action. The political impact led to legislation that made compulsory the creation of equality committees and protocols against sexual harassment. Social impact, aligned with SDG 5, inspires the reduction of GBV, while encouraging the career promotion of female researchers. ProWomenDialogue embodies a Successful Action platform against violence, presenting their features as recommendations to be implemented in other settings.

Towards a Fungal Science That Is Independent of Researchers’ Gender

The main drivers of gender mainstreaming in basic and clinical research appear to be funding agencies and scientific journals. Some funding agencies have already recognized the importance of their actions for the global development of ideas in science, but further targeted efforts are needed. The challenges for women scientists in fungal research appear to be similar to those in other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, although the gender gap in mycology publishing appears to be less pronounced; however, women are underrepresented as last (corresponding) authors. Two examples of best practices to bridge the gap have been promoted in the fungal community: “power hour” and a central resource database for women researchers of fungi and oomycetes. A more balanced ratio of women researchers among (plenary) session speakers, (plenary) session chairs, and committee members at the recent fungal genetics conference is an encouraging sign that the gender gap can be closed. The editorial policy of some journals follows the guidance “Sex and Gender Equality in Research,” and other journals should follow, and indicate the gender ratio among authors and reviewers.

Leak or link? the overrepresentation of women in non-tenure-track academic positions in STEM

This paper examines gender variation in departures from the tenure-track science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) academic career pathway to non-tenure-track academic careers. We integrate multiple data sources including the Survey of Earned Doctorates and the Survey of Doctorate Recipients to examine longitudinal career outcomes of STEM doctorate women. We consider three types of careers after receipt of a PhD: academic, academic non-tenure-track, and non-academic positions. We find that STEM women are more likely to hold academic non-tenure-track positions, which are associated with lower job satisfaction and lower salaries among men and women. Explanations including differences in field of study, preparation in graduate school, and family structure only explain 35 percent of the gender gap in non-tenure-track academic positions.

Participación femenina en los comités editoriales de revistas médicas en Latinoamérica

Introducción.

La participación femenina en el campo de la medicina y la investigación se ha incrementado en los últimos años; sin embargo, aún existen inequidades en la proporción de hombres y mujeres, especialmente en los cargos directivos y la participación en los comités editoriales de revistas científicas.

Objetivo.

Establecer la participación femenina en los comités editoriales de revistas médicas en Latinoamérica, y explorar su asociación con los cargos editoriales y los indicadores de impacto.

Materiales y métodos.

Se hizo un estudio descriptivo de tipo bibliométrico de revistas médicas de Latinoamérica indizadas en Scopus, actualizadas y vigentes en el 2020, las cuales se seleccionaron del portal de Scimago Journal & Country Rank. Los equipos editoriales se categorizaron en tres grupos según sus funciones y, posteriormente, se registró el sexo de sus miembros a partir de sus nombres.

Resultados.

Se incluyeron 113 revistas. En cuanto al liderazgo editorial, entre los 264 directores de comités editoriales, las mujeres representaban el 12,9 %. En lo concerniente a las diferentes funciones, de 1.449 miembros, las mujeres eran el 28,9 %, en tanto que, de los 4.575 miembros de comités consultivos, el 19,0 % correspondía a mujeres. Se observó una mayor presencia de mujeres en los comités editoriales de revistas de Chile, Brasil y Venezuela, y en las especialidades de salud pública, pediatría y anestesiología.

Conclusiones.

La participación femenina en los comités editoriales de revistas médicas de Latinoamérica es escasa.

The Extent of Gender Gap in Citations in Ophthalmology Literature

Purpose

To investigate the severity and causes of gender imbalance in the counts of ophthalmology citations.

Methods

The PubMed database was searched to identify cited papers that were published in four journals (Prog Retin Eye Res, Ophthalmology, JAMA Ophthalmol, and Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci) between August 2015 and July 2020, and those that referenced these cited papers by 2021 July (i.e., citing papers). The gender category of a given paper is defined by the gender of the first and last author (MM, FM, MF, and FF; M means male and F means female). A generalized additive model to predict the expected proportion was fitted. The difference between the observed proportion and expected proportion of citations of a paper’s gender category was the primary outcome.

Results

The proportion of female-led (MF and FF) papers slightly increased from 27% in 2015 to 30% in 2020. MM, FM, MF, and FF papers were cited as −9.3, −1.5, 13.0, and 23.9% more than expected, respectively. MM papers cited 13.9% more male-led (MM and FM) papers than female-led papers, and FF papers cited 33.5% fewer male-led papers than female-led papers. The difference between the observed proportion and expected proportion of MM citing papers within male-led and female-led cited papers grew at a rate of 0.13 and 0.67% per year.

Conclusion

The high frequency of citations of female-led papers might narrow the gender gap in the citation count within ophthalmology. These findings show that papers by female-led are less common, so the gender gap might still exist even with their high citation count.

Establishing Social Learning in an Engineering MOOC: Benefits for Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering Education

Recent Higher Education Statistics Agency data shows that only 20% of engineering students at UK Universities are female, despite the hard work being undertaken by many educational institutions to address this gender imbalance via outreach events and special interventions focussing on girls/women in STEM. It has been argued that student-centred teaching methods, together with changes in the engineering curriculum itself, which emphasise the social, creative, and human-centred aspects of the discipline, are required to effect real change in engaging with those from traditionally underrepresented groups. Through analysing quantitative data on age, gender, learner type, and commenting rates in peer-to-peer discussions, we examine the development and delivery of an engineering MOOC, before, during, and after COVID-19-related lockdowns in the UK, to identify what aspects of online learning might be harnessed to improve diversity in engineering education. The results show that the MOOC attracted a better gender balance than reported for UK-based in-person engineering programmes. In addition, we show that careful structuring of discussion prompts encouraged higher levels of social learning. We recommend the continued use of interactive and discursive elements within a blended learning environment to positively impact diversity and inclusion in engineering education specifically, and STEM education in general.

Representation of women on editorial boards of ophthalmology journals: protocol for a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION

There is a notable under-representation of women in leadership positions in ophthalmology despite the increasing number of women as ophthalmologists. Gender inequality in editorial boards of ophthalmology journals has not been investigated on a global scale. This study will aim to evaluate the representation of women as editorial board members in ophthalmology journals across different regions, journal subspecialties and impact factors.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

This will be a cross-sectional study describing the gender composition of editorial boards in ophthalmology journals globally. Ulrich's Periodicals Directory and SCImago Journal & Country Rank will be used to comprehensively identify journals indexed with the keyword, 'ophthalmology'. All journals with active websites and lists of editorial boards will be included. Journals will be categorised according to the World Bank's 2021 classification of countries by income and region, and classified into ophthalmology subspecialties based on publication scope. Impact factors will be obtained from Journal Citation Reports. The gender and academic degrees of each editorial board member will be determined based on journal profiles, institutional websites or name query feature on an online interface. The research impact of each editorial board member will be ascertained from the author records on Web of Science. The gender proportion will be presented for all journals combined, and then for journals grouped by regions, subspecialties and impact factors. Editorial board member characteristics including academic degrees and research productivity measures will be compared between men and women. These comparisons will be made using the χ² test for categorical variables and the independent samples t-test for continuous variables.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This study did not require research ethics approval given the use of publicly available data and lack of human subjects. The results will be presented at scientific meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Underrepresentation of women in computer systems research

The gender gap in computer science (CS) research is a well-studied problem, with an estimated ratio of 15%–30% women researchers. However, far less is known about gender representation in specific fields within CS. Here, we investigate the gender gap in one large field, computer systems. To this end, we collected data from 72 leading peer-reviewed CS conferences, totalling 6,949 accepted papers and 19,829 unique authors (2,946 women, 16,307 men, the rest unknown). We combined these data with external demographic and bibliometric data to evaluate the ratio of women authors and the factors that might affect this ratio. Our main findings are that women represent only about 10% of systems researchers, and that this ratio is not associated with various conference factors such as size, prestige, double-blind reviewing, and inclusivity policies. Author research experience also does not significantly affect this ratio, although author country and work sector do. The 10% ratio of women authors is significantly lower than the 16% in the rest of CS. Our findings suggest that focusing on inclusivity policies alone cannot address this large gap. Increasing women’s participation in systems research will require addressing the systemic causes of their exclusion, which are even more pronounced in systems than in the rest of CS.

Embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Scientific Community—Viewpoints of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the North American Vascular Biology Organization

Recent increased visibility on racial issues in the United States elicited public outcry and a collective call for action. The social justice movement has facilitated energetic discussions about race, sexual orientation, and various issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This article discusses issues faced by people of color that we as scientists can address, as well as challenges faced by women and internationally trained scientists in the scientific community that need immediate attention. Moreover, we highlight various ways to resolve such issues at both institutional and individual levels. Silence and incremental solutions are no longer acceptable to achieving lasting social justice and ensure prosperous societies that work for all.

A framework for educating and empowering students by teaching about history and consequences of bias in STEM

Racism and bias are pervasive in society—and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are not immune to these issues. It is imperative that we educate ourselves and our students about the history and consequences of this bias in STEM, investigate the research showing bias toward marginalized groups, understand how to interpret misuses of science in perpetuating bias, and identify advances and solutions to overcome racism and bias throughout our professional and personal lives. Here, we present one model for teaching a universal course for participants of all professional stages to address these issues and initiate solutions. As very few institutions require students to enroll in courses on racism and bias in STEM or even offer such courses, our curriculum could be used as a blueprint for implementation across institutions. Ultimately, institutions and academic disciplines can incorporate this important material with more region and/or discipline specific studies of bias.

Predicting the future impact of Computer Science researchers: Is there a gender bias?

The advent of large-scale bibliographic databases and powerful prediction algorithms led to calls for data-driven approaches for targeting scarce funds at researchers with high predicted future scientific impact. The potential side-effects and fairness implications of such approaches are unknown, however. Using a large-scale bibliographic data set of N = 111,156 Computer Science researchers active from 1993 to 2016, I build and evaluate a realistic scientific impact prediction model. Given the persistent under-representation of women in Computer Science, the model is audited for disparate impact based on gender. Random forests and Gradient Boosting Machines are used to predict researchers’ h-index in 2010 from their bibliographic profiles in 2005. Based on model predictions, it is determined whether the researcher will become a high-performer with an h-index in the top-25% of the discipline-specific h-index distribution. The models predict the future h-index with an accuracy of $$R^2 = 0.875$$ R 2 = 0.875 and correctly classify 91.0% of researchers as high-performers and low-performers. Overall accuracy does not vary strongly across researcher gender. Nevertheless, there is indication of disparate impact against women. The models under-estimate the true h-index of female researchers more strongly than the h-index of male researchers. Further, women are 8.6% less likely to be predicted to become high-performers than men. In practice, hiring, tenure, and funding decisions that are based on model predictions risk to perpetuate the under-representation of women in Computer Science.

Women in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering: past, present and future

Women in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering (WiMPBME) is a Task Group established in 2014 under the International Union of Physical and Engineering Scientists in Medicine (IUPESM). The group’s main role is to identify, develop, implement, and coordinate various tasks and projects related to women’s needs and roles in medical physics and biomedical engineering around the world.

The current paper summarizes the past, present and future goals and activities undertaken or planned by the Task group in order to motivate, nurture and support women in medical physics and biomedical engineering throughout their professional careers. In addition, the article includes the historical pathway followed by various women’s groups and subcommittees from 2004 up to the present day and depicts future aims to further these professions in a gender-balanced manner.

Was This Supposed to Be on the Test? Academic Leadership, Gender and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Denmark, Hungary, Romania, and United Kingdom

Recent developments in workplace dynamics have made us even more aware of the importance of gender representation in all work-related decisions. Working from home during the pandemic, a decision that was generally the norm for European universities, forced us to rethink what are the main priorities when addressing the different needs of academic workers. The present paper tackles this overall issue from the perspective of gender representation, looking at the gender composition of the leadership structures of universities and their policy responses to employee needs. All the state-accredited universities in the following countries were included in the analysis: Romania, Denmark, Hungary and UK. These countries were chosen for the diversity in the state of their gender politics and in their overall quality of higher education. Primary results show not only that gender equality within academic leadership lags behind, but also that this lag may be associated with a poorer policy response to challenges typically faced by women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gender representation in science publication: evidence from Brain Communications

The persistent underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) points to the need to continue promoting the awareness and understanding of this phenomenon. Being one of the main outputs of scientific work, academic publications provide the opportunity to quantify the gender gap in science as well as to identify possible sources of bias and areas of improvement. Brain Communications is a 'young' journal founded in 2019, committed to transparent publication of rigorous work in neuroscience, neurology and psychiatry. For all manuscripts (n = 796) received by the journal between 2019 and 2021, we analysed the gender of all authors (n = 7721) and reviewers (n = 4492). Overall, women were 35.3% of all authors and 31.3% of invited reviewers. A considerably higher proportion of women was found in first authorship (42.4%) than in last authorship positions (24.9%). The representation of women authors and reviewers decreased further in the months following COVID-19 restrictions, suggesting a possible exacerbating role of the pandemic on existing disparities in science publication. The proportion of manuscripts accepted for publication was not significantly different according to the gender of the first, middle or last authors, meaning we found no evidence of gender bias within the review or editorial decision-making processes at Brain Communications.

Mind the gender gap: COVID-19 lockdown effects on gender differences in preprint submissions

The gender gap is a well-known problem in academia and, despite its gradual narrowing, recent estimations indicate that it will persist for decades. Short-term descriptive studies suggest that this gap may have actually worsened during the months of confinement following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this work, we evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on female and male academics’ research productivity using preprint drop-off data. We examine a total of 307,902 unique research articles deposited in 5 major preprint repositories during the period between January and May each year from 2017 to 2020. We find that the proportion of female authors in online repositories steadily increased over time; however, the trend reversed during the confinement and gender parity worsened in two respects. First, the proportion of male authors in preprints increased significantly during lockdown. Second, the proportion of male authors in COVID-19-related articles was significantly higher than that of women. Overall, our results imply that the gender gap in academia suffered an approximately 1-year setback during the strict lockdown months of 2020, and COVID-related research areas suffered an additional 1.5-year setback.

Nondisclosure of queer identities is associated with reduced scholarly publication rates

Nondisclosure of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, asexual, or otherwise queer (LGBTQA) identities in the workplace is both common and stressful to those who do not disclose. However, we lack direct evidence that nondisclosure of LGBTQA identity affects worker productivity. In two surveys of LGBTQA-identified scientists, we found that those who did not disclose LGBTQA identities in professional settings authored fewer peer-reviewed publications-a concrete productivity cost. In the second survey, which included straight and cisgender participants as a comparison group, we found that LGBTQA participants who disclosed their sexual orientation had publication counts more like non-LGBTQA participants than those who did not disclose, and that all three groups had similar time since first publication given their academic career stage. These results are most consistent with a productivity cost to nondisclosure of LGBTQA identity in professional settings, and suggest a concrete need to improve scientific workplace climates for sexual and gender minorities.