Abstract
The US scientific workforce is primarily composed of White men. Studies have demonstrated the systemic barriers preventing women and other minoritized populations from gaining entry to science; few, however, have taken an intersectional perspective and examined the consequences of these inequalities on scientific knowledge. We provide a large-scale bibliometric analysis of the relationship between intersectional identities, topics, and scientific impact. We find homophily between identities and topic, suggesting a relationship between diversity in the scientific workforce and expansion of the knowledge base. However, topic selection comes at a cost to minoritized individuals for whom we observe both between- and within-topic citation disadvantages. To enhance the robustness of science, research organizations should provide adequate resources to historically underfunded research areas while simultaneously providing access for minoritized individuals into high-prestige networks and topics.
Highlights
The US scientific workforce is primarily composed of White men
Women and other minoritized populations are underrepresented in scientific publishing [8, 9], for example, and this can be associated with unequal outcomes in peer review [10, 11]
Men first authors are generally more cited than women, and Asian authors are more cited than Black, Latinx, and White authors, both in raw citations and field-normalized citations
Summary
Studies have demonstrated the systemic barriers preventing women and other minoritized populations from gaining entry to science; few, have taken an intersectional perspective and examined the consequences of these inequalities on scientific knowledge. Gender differences are observed within racial categories: men account for a higher share than women, especially for White and Asian/Pacific Islanders [6]. In Biology, only 0.7% of faculty identify as Black, despite representing 12.2% of the US population [7] These differences characterize the unequal representation of populations within the scientific community. Diversity in the composition of scientific teams has been linked to higher citations [25] and tied to gains in innovation [26] This emergent body of literature suggests that there are scientific and societal benefits to increasing diversity in science. The changing demographics of the research community improved the situation, as women are more likely to include female subjects [29] and to report sex as Significance
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