RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Gender imbalances in citation rates are mediated by field specific author gender distributions
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.07.28.501862
DO 10.1101/2022.07.28.501862
A1 Riemann, Steffen
A1 Roheger, Mandy
A1 Kohlschmidt, Jan
A1 Kirschke, Jennifer
A1 Lillo, Margherita
A1 Flöel, Agnes
A1 Meinzer, Marcus
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/08/01/2022.07.28.501862.abstract
AB Gender biases are well documented in science and typically favor male scientists. In this context, a particularly pervasive gender bias is undercitation of publications authored by women, resulting in profound negative effects on academic visibility and career advancement. This bias has been well documented in fields where author gender distributions are strongly skewed towards men (e.g., astronomy, physics, neuroscience). By investigating citation practices in a field that has traditionally been more accessible to female scientists (Speech and Language Pathology, SLP), we demonstrate that gendered citation practices are mediated by author gender distribution, rather than being a universal pattern. Specifically, our results revealed a citation pattern in SLP that (a) overall tends to favor female authors, (b) persists after controlling for potential confounding factors and, (c) is particularly strong when female authors are citing publications involving female first and senior author teams. This research also implies that the implementation of effective measures to increase the number and influence of underrepresented individuals in specific fields of science may be suitable to mitigate downstream disadvantages for career advancement of either sex.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.