The effect of gender on research staff success in life sciences in the Spanish National Research Council

Abstract

Inter-gender differences in research performance of Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) scientists in the area of biology and biomedicine are analysed by means of bibliometric indicators (SCI, 1996–2000). Productivity of both men and women increases with scientific category, and inter-gender differences are not found within each category. Women with intermediate levels of seniority (11–20 and 21–30 years of working life) show lower productivity than their male counterparts, a factor which might contribute to explaining the slower promotion observed for female scientists. However, women who entered CSIC in the last 10 years overtake men in productivity, so a more balanced distribution of women by scientific ranks would be expected in the future. The need to improve the normalisation of author names in publications and bibliographic databases and even to develop a ‘digital author identifier’ to make these studies easier is pointed out. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.