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The effect of mentee and mentor gender on scientific productivity of applicants for NIH training fellowships

View ORCID ProfileHao Yu, View ORCID ProfileKristine A. Willis, Aviva Litovitz, Robert M. Harriman, View ORCID ProfileMatthew T. Davis, Payam Meyer, Brad Busse, View ORCID ProfileRebecca A. Meseroll, Hashanthi D. Wijayatilake, Matthew J. Perkins, View ORCID ProfileJames M. Anderson, View ORCID ProfileGeorge M. Santangelo
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.02.429450
Hao Yu
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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Kristine A. Willis
3National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20850
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  • ORCID record for Kristine A. Willis
Aviva Litovitz
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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Robert M. Harriman
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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Matthew T. Davis
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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Payam Meyer
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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Brad Busse
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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Rebecca A. Meseroll
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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Hashanthi D. Wijayatilake
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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Matthew J. Perkins
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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James M. Anderson
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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George M. Santangelo
1Office of Portfolio Analysis, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
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  • For correspondence: george.santangelo@nih.gov
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Abstract

Several studies have suggested that women in science are less productive than men, and that this gap contributes to their under-representation in the ranks of senior researchers. However, few studies have examined the role of mentoring, and in particular mentor gender, on the productivity of female scientists early in their careers. Such efforts are limited by the difficulties of unambiguously linking mentees to their mentors and measuring the research productivity resulting from those relationships. Here we use our novel author disambiguation solution to investigate the role of self-identified gender in mentorship of 12,932 trainees who either successfully or unsuccessfully applied to the National Institutes of Health for research fellowships between fiscal years 2011 and 2017, applying a multi-dimensional framework to assess productivity. We found that, after normalizing for the funding level of mentors, the productivity of female and male mentees is indistinguishable; it is also independent of the gender of the mentor, other than in measures of clinical impact, where women mentored by women outperform other mentee-mentor dyads.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. This article is a US Government work. It is not subject to copyright under 17 USC 105 and is also made available for use under a CC0 license.
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Posted February 03, 2021.
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The effect of mentee and mentor gender on scientific productivity of applicants for NIH training fellowships
Hao Yu, Kristine A. Willis, Aviva Litovitz, Robert M. Harriman, Matthew T. Davis, Payam Meyer, Brad Busse, Rebecca A. Meseroll, Hashanthi D. Wijayatilake, Matthew J. Perkins, James M. Anderson, George M. Santangelo
bioRxiv 2021.02.02.429450; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.02.429450
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The effect of mentee and mentor gender on scientific productivity of applicants for NIH training fellowships
Hao Yu, Kristine A. Willis, Aviva Litovitz, Robert M. Harriman, Matthew T. Davis, Payam Meyer, Brad Busse, Rebecca A. Meseroll, Hashanthi D. Wijayatilake, Matthew J. Perkins, James M. Anderson, George M. Santangelo
bioRxiv 2021.02.02.429450; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.02.429450

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