To find out the representation of girls amongst scientific journal editors -; key players within the scientific community who’ve the ultimate say about what papers get published -; a team led by NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) researchers has accomplished the most important study so far of systemic gender inequality in editorial boards over the past five a long time. Since scientific editors shape the content of educational journals and set standards for his or her fields, gender disparity can influence opportunities for girls to publish in these journals, receive recognition for his or her research, and advance their careers.

The NYUAD researchers and their colleagues studied each the gender composition of editorial boards across fifteen disciplines and the speed at which editors publish their very own research within the journals they oversee. They found that ladies have been consistently underrepresented on editorial boards across disciplines, and editors could publish as much as 70 percent of their papers within the journals they edit while continuing to function editors. Nevertheless, women were found to be less prone to publish their very own work in their very own journals.

Within the paper titled Gender inequality and self-publication are common amongst academic editors published within the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the NYUAD researchers used algorithmic tools to infer the gender of 81,000 editors serving greater than 1,000 journals and 15 disciplines over five a long time and located that only 26 percent of authors in the info set were women, and even fewer women were editors (14 percent) or editors-in-chief (eight percent).

While being the gatekeepers of science, editors also actively seek opportunities to publish. The overwhelming majority of editors are research-active academics who perform editorial duties along with their research activities. By analyzing the publication records of 20,000 editors, the researchers found that 12 percent publish not less than one fifth, and 6 percent publish not less than one third, of their very own papers within the journal they edit. Editors-in-chief are inclined to self-publish at the next rate; it was found that 19 percent self-publish not less than one fifth of their papers, and 11 percent self-publish one third of their papers. Finally, in comparison with women, men have the next increase in the speed at which they publish in a journal soon after becoming its editor.

While gender disparity has often been measured by way of citation count, paper count, and profession length, this study has shown that, not less than for editors-in-chief, gender disparity goes beyond what’s predicted by these numbers. Editors are highly influential and may decide to foster a more inclusive scientific community by choosing papers transparently, and may encourage a more inclusive editorial board by recruiting board members from underrepresented groups. Due to this fact, diversity and representation amongst editors is critical.

The editors of scientific journals hold tremendous power of their fields, directly influencing what research – and which researchers – are elevated. Unfortunately, not all scientists have an equal opportunity to carry these positions. Our study shows that, despite efforts to extend the representation of girls in all points of the scientific workforce, including editorial leadership positions in journals, it is evident that ladies are still significantly underrepresented in positions of power.”

Talal Rahwan, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Assistant Professor of Computational Social Science Bedoor AlShebli added: “This study also indicates the systematic prevalence of non-meritocratic aspects in choosing editors-in-chief that work against women. Our findings align with past findings that ladies face additional obstacles in being recognized as elite scientists of their respective disciplines. Future research might be obligatory to further pinpoint the underlying mechanisms behind these findings, with the goal of contributing to a fairer, more transparent, and more inclusive culture of scientific editorship.”

Source:

Recent York University Abu Dhabi

Journal reference:

Liu, F., et al. (2023) Gender inequality and self-publication are common amongst academic editors. Nature Human Behaviour. doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01498-1.