Gender issues in fundamental physics: A bibliometric analysis

Alessandro Strumia

doi:10.1162/qss_a_00114

Abstract

AbstractI analyze bibliometric data about fundamental physics worldwide from 1970 to now, extracting quantitative data about gender issues. I do not find significant gender differences in hiring rates, hiring timing, career gaps and slowdowns, abandonment rates, citation, and self-citation patterns. Furthermore, various bibliometric indicators (number of fractionally counted papers, citations, etc.) exhibit a productivity gap at hiring moments, at career level, and without integrating over careers. The gap persists after accounting for confounding factors and manifests as an increasing fraction of male authors going from average to top authors in terms of bibliometric indices, with a quantitative shape that can be fitted by higher male variability.

Highlights

This paper originates from an observational opportunity: For the first time sociological issues in fundamental physics can be studied using the public InSpire database, which has accumulated bibliometric data about fundamental physics worldwide from around 1970 to (InSpire, 2010)
Among the 71,104 authors in fundamental physics listed in the InSpire database, 49,860 male and 9,205 female authors were identified. 16% of authors with identified gender are classified as female, and wrote 10% of the fractionally counted papers receiving 7% of the individual citations
The right panel shows that, within the countries that most contributed to fundamental physics, the female fractions range between 7% and 23%

Summary

Introduction

This paper originates from an observational opportunity: For the first time sociological issues in fundamental physics can be studied using the public InSpire database, which has accumulated bibliometric data about fundamental physics worldwide from around 1970 to (InSpire, 2010). Fundamental physics is a subdiscipline of physics that deals with the fundamental aspects of the field and that presently focuses mostly on particle physics, cosmology, and astrophysics, from an experimental and theoretical point of view. Such bibliometric data are being used to study various aspects of the field. I can do this, as I have the full database, not just access to some predefined metrics

Methods

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Conclusion