Gender inequities in the online dissemination of scholars’ work

Abstract

Unbiased science dissemination has the potential to alleviate some of the known gender disparities in academia by exposing female scholars’ work to other scientists and the public. And yet, we lack comprehensive understanding of the relationship between gender and science dissemination online. Our large-scale analyses, encompassing half a million scholars, revealed that female scholars’ work is mentioned less frequently than male scholars’ work in all research areas. When exploring the characteristics associated with online success, we found that the impact of prior work, social capital, and gendered tie formation in coauthorship networks are linked with online success for men, but not for women—even in the areas with the highest female representation. These results suggest that while men’s scientific impact and collaboration networks are associated with higher visibility online, there are no universally identifiable facets associated with success for women. Our comprehensive empirical evidence indicates that the gender gap in online science dissemination is coupled with a lack of understanding the characteristics that are linked with female scholars’ success, which might hinder efforts to close the gender gap in visibility.

“Broad” Impact: Perceptions of Sex/Gender-Related Psychology Journals

“…However, the same gender biases that emerge in traditional article metrics (like citation count; Larivière et al, 2013 ) also emerge for online visibility. For instance, male-identified scientists received more attention than female-identified scientists among the top 25% of online scholars, regardless of the research area and the proportion of female-identified scientists in the research area ( Vasarhelyi et al, 2021 ). Thus, androcentric biases occur overall in the dissemination of online scholarship because people pay more/less attention to research based on the authors’ characteristics (gender, race, university affiliation, e.g., Vasarhelyi et al, 2021 ).…”

“…For instance, male-identified scientists received more attention than female-identified scientists among the top 25% of online scholars, regardless of the research area and the proportion of female-identified scientists in the research area ( Vasarhelyi et al, 2021 ). Thus, androcentric biases occur overall in the dissemination of online scholarship because people pay more/less attention to research based on the authors’ characteristics (gender, race, university affiliation, e.g., Vasarhelyi et al, 2021 ). But what we do not know is will research within psychology about sex/gender similarly be ignored or, perhaps, receive extra interest because it confirms or challenges the status quo .…”

Can we see gender through the microscope? The research output using menstrual blood cells has much to say

“…Studies have shown that women's scientific work is less cited and gets less visibility on social media than men's (70). Social media is an important space for gaining credibility, visibility, and success, therefore, relevant to strengthen the presence of women in science.…”

Stepping up to the mic: Gender gaps in participation in live question-and-answer sessions at academic conferences

“…To the extent that diverse voices are included in the feedback process, the quality of the work also improves (Woolley et al, 2010). In academia, women's work continues to be underrepresented and undervalued (Knobloch-Westerwick et al, 2013;Vásárhelyi et al, 2021).…”

“…Gendered power differentials also impact academic spaces in which women are underrepresented, paid less, and their work is valued less (Gruber et al, 2021;Kaatz & Carnes, 2014;Knobloch-Westerwick et al, 2013;Llorens et al, 2021;Schroeder et al, 2013;Vásárhelyi et al, 2021). These gendered power differences can be seen behaviorally in departmental seminar and conference Q&A sessions where, relative to women, men participate more (Carter et al, 2018;Hinsley et al, 2017;Käfer et al, 2018;Pritchard et al, 2014;Schmidt & Davenport, 2017;Telis et al, 2019).…”