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Gender and geographical disparity in editorial boards of journals in psychology and neuroscience

View ORCID ProfileEleanor R. Palser, Maia Lazerwitz, Aikaterini Fotopoulou
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.15.431321
Eleanor R. Palser
1Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, 675 Nelson Rising Lane, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
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  • For correspondence: eleanor.palser@ucsf.edu
Maia Lazerwitz
1Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, 675 Nelson Rising Lane, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
2Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley, Life Sciences Addition, #3200, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
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Aikaterini Fotopoulou
3Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
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Abstract

While certain metrics of diversity have seen great improvement in recent years in academic psychology and neuroscience, unequal representation remains for many positions of power. Here, we reviewed publicly available information in order to infer the proportion of editors by gender and their country of affiliation in the top 50 journals worldwide in each of the two fields. The sample included a total of 2,864 editors for psychology journals and 3,093 editors for neuroscience journals. There was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of male and female editors in both fields, both across editorial roles, and within various role categories, including editor-in-chief and their deputies at neuroscience journals, associate and section editors in both fields, and editorial and advisory board members in both fields. The only category in which there was not a significant imbalance of male and female scholars was the editors-in-chief of psychology journals and their deputies. Geographically, USA-based academics significantly outnumbered those from other countries as editors in both psychology and neuroscience. Results also indicated that over three quarters of psychology journals (76%) were comprised of more than 50% male editors, while only 20% had a similar proportion of female editors. In neuroscience, 88% of journals were comprised of more than 50% male editors, while only 10% of journals included a similar, proportional majority of female editors. Findings suggest that editorial positions in academic journals, possibly one of the most powerful decision-making roles in academic psychology and neuroscience, are not balanced in gender or geographical representation.

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. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted February 16, 2021.
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Gender and geographical disparity in editorial boards of journals in psychology and neuroscience
Eleanor R. Palser, Maia Lazerwitz, Aikaterini Fotopoulou
bioRxiv 2021.02.15.431321; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.15.431321
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Gender and geographical disparity in editorial boards of journals in psychology and neuroscience
Eleanor R. Palser, Maia Lazerwitz, Aikaterini Fotopoulou
bioRxiv 2021.02.15.431321; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.15.431321

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