Exploring Publication Bias across the Department of Brain Sciences.
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Date
2024
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Publisher
Imperial College London
Abstract
Background
There are few females and authors from minoritised ethnic groups in the Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) fields. This disparity is sustained by various factors, including social and historical influences. Females often have lower publication rates due to a lack of recognition from their colleagues and the disproportionate burden of childcare and domestic responsibilities that women are expected to shoulder. Similarly, people belonging to minoritised ethnic backgrounds also face challenges which result in low publication rates. Furthermore, the intersectionality of gender and ethnicity makes this gap worse in the publication rate disparity. Therefore, it is necessary to address these problems if we want diversity, equality and inclusion in (STEM).
Aims: To explore gender and ethnicity bias in publishing within the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London.
Objectives: Analyze how publication output varies across genders, ethnicities, or job levels within this department; investigate if the intersectionality of gender and ethnicity affects publication bias; establish whether authorship order changes with respect to differentiating factors like job level, ethnicity, or gender.
Methods
This quantitative study used a dataset containing 14,043 published papers. Publication rates were analysed using negative binomial mixed-effect regression models and logistic mixed-effects models to assess the likelihood of being in which authorship position, while citation counts were subjected to t-test and ANOVA tests to determine their relationship with job level, gender, and ethnicity.
Results
The analysis identifies some significant findings regarding publication rates and author positionings. Men tend to have higher publication rates than women, whereas there is no significant difference in publication rates between non-minoritised and minoritised ethnic groups. The intersectionality analysis indicates no compounded effect of gender and ethnicity on publication rates. Recent years also show a decreased likelihood of being in the first or last author position, with no significant differences across job level, gender or ethnicity. However, middle author positions are more likely in recent years than before, a change that is not dependent on job level, gender and ethnicity. The citation analysis revealed significant disparities influenced by gender, ethnicity, and job level, with men and non-minoritized ethnic groups receiving higher citation counts, and Senior Lecturers/Readers showing higher citation counts compared to other job levels.
Conclusions
The study reveals significant variations in publication rates based on gender and job level, illustrated by men and professors showing higher publishing rates. For the overall publication rate in recent years, the year of publication was a significant predictor. The intersectionality analysis indicates no compounded effect of gender and ethnicity on publication rates. These results underscore the need for continual efforts to address gender biases and ensure fair publishing chances at all job levels at universities worldwide.
Description
Writing and publishing research papers is an important part of a scientist's job. Publishing a research paper involves printing or presenting it in a scientific journal or online for other scientists and the public to read. It's how scientists get credit for their work and tell everyone about what they think or find. But not everyone has an equal chance of publishing their papers. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether there was bias in the publication rates for men, women, people of different ethnic backgrounds and those of varying job levels.
Women as well as people from minority ethnic groups have previously faced challenges in science. They are rarely visible in subjects such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This could be because they are not given as much credit for their works as compared with other colleagues or because women should handle more responsibilities at home than men do. These factors can reduce the number of publications made by these groups, which can hurt their careers.
Over 14,000 published papers were analysed from the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London to see if there were differences between men and women, different ethnic backgrounds, and job levels that determine how often authors publish papers. Research also investigated who is more likely to be listed in first or last positions on papers, which usually bring higher prestige. The results indicated some key differences. Regarding publishing papers, males tend to publish more than females. However, no significant difference was observed between publication rates among individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds and non-minority ones. This implies that ethnicity alone does not account for variation in publishing rates. Furthermore, it found that being a woman who belongs to a minority group does not necessarily make it harder for her to publish beyond the difficulties faced by women worldwide.
Surprisingly, middle authors have become more apparent than first or last authors in recent years, regardless of the person's job level, gender, or ethnicity. This suggests there might be more teamwork or more students and postdocs in the department, who are more likely to be listed as middle authors on papers.
The research also found that among researchers, men and representatives of non-minority ethnic groups were more likely to be cited, which means their work was mentioned or referred to by other scientists in their research papers. This can increase their recognition and power within the scientific community. Moreover, Senior Lecturers and Readers received higher citation counts than other job levels.
These findings emphasis the vital necessity for tackling such differences. Equal chances must be provided for everyone to publish their works successfully and make successful steps into their academic careers. So, this study revealed that building inclusive and fair environments for science is extremely important.
Keywords
Publication rate, Genders, Job Levels, ethnicity, citation, authorship