The publication gender gap in psychology

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Gender Studies
• Bibliometrics

Background:

• Women are underrepresented in academic science careers.
• Psychology exhibits gender inequality, with women comprising most students but few professors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze publication and citation patterns by gender in research psychology.
• To identify factors contributing to gender disparities in scientific contributions.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of publication records from 125 high-impact psychology journals.
• Gender classification of over 750,000 authors using first names and census data.
• Examination of publication and citation gaps across subdisciplines and time.

Main Results:

• Replication of existing gender gaps in psychology publications and citations.
• Demonstration of persistent gaps across subdisciplines and time.
• Identification of contextual factors: larger gaps in high-impact journals and for last authors, unaffected by university or coauthorship frequency.

Conclusions:

• Gender disparities in psychology publishing are persistent and influenced by specific academic contexts.
• Findings highlight the need for continued investigation into factors affecting women's representation and advancement in research.
• Openly available tools are provided for further analysis of gender differences in academic publishing.