Inequality In Science Research Articles

The European research elite: a cross-national study of highly productive academics in 11 countries

In this paper, we focus on a rare scholarly theme of highly productive academics, statistically confirming their pivotal role in knowledge production across 11 systems studied. The upper 10 % of highly productive academics in 11 European countries studied (N = 17,211) provide on average almost half of all academic knowledge production. In contrast to dominating bibliometric studies of research productivity, we focus on academic attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions as predictors of becoming research top performers across European systems. Our paper provides a (large-scale and cross-country) corroboration of the systematic inequality in knowledge production, for the first time argued for by Lotka (J Wash Acad Sci 16:317–323, 1929) and de Solla Price (Little science, big science. Columbia University Press, New York, 1963). We corroborate the deep academic inequality in science and explore this segment of the academic profession. The European research elite is a highly homogeneous group of academics whose high research performance is driven by structurally similar factors, mostly individual rather than institutional. Highly productive academics are similar from a cross-national perspective, and they substantially differ intra-nationally from their lower-performing colleagues.

Gender inequality in science

How should a better gender balance be achieved? [Also see Report by Leslie et al. ]

Sociology of science. "Undemocracy": inequalities in science.

Inequality, an intrinsic feature of science, has trended upward in recent years

Why Justice?

This special issue of Science, Technology, & Human Values assembles papers that consider relations among science, ethics, and justice. The papers are drawn from a 2011 National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop that brought together interdisciplinary scholars to consider, incorporate, and attend to the meanings, uses, and social consequences of ethical questions and justice ideals in technoscientific projects. The papers included in this special issue examine key areas that emerged from this workshop, including public participation, the production of knowledge, what counts as consent, ownership of biomaterials, and others. Together, the papers raise questions about new directions and articulations of power, justice, and inequalities in science and technology studies.

Bringing Pierre Bourdieu to Science and Technology Studies

For many years, the most high profile work in science and technology studies (STS) did not theorize the place of power in the scientific field. Scholars were not inclined to explore the extent to which the social organization of science affects who the winners and losers are in technoscientific struggles. This began to change in the 1990s and recent years have seen a wide array of scholarship which explicitly or implicitly treats the scientific field, to paraphrase Pierre Bourdieu, as a field like any other, with its struggles, interests and distributions of power (e.g., Frickel and Moore 2006; Kleinman 2003). Despite this growing attention to power, struggle, and inequality in science, relatively few scholars have integrated the conceptual tools developed by Pierre Bourdieu into their work (but see Albert et al. 2008, 2009; Cooper 2009; Fourcade 2009; Hong, 2008; Kim 2009). The essays in this volume explicitly engage Bourdieu in their STS scholarship and set a provocative foundation for further work in the area. In this introductory essay, we explore how major figures in STS conceptualize the scientific field and power within it. We point to what we believe are some of the limitations in that work. Finally, we outline a Bourdieusian perspective on technoscience and suggest how Bourdieu’s concepts might be profitably drawn on in STS scholarship.

Shaping women or changing the system: accounts of gender inequality in science

Purpose – The paper aims to critically review four recently published books, each of which aims to explain the disproportionate representation of men and women in science careers, and to understand gender differences in achievements and productivity.Design/methodology/approach – This is a thematic book review and conceptual analysis and development.Findings – The review shows that in order to reduce and eliminate gender inequality in science careers, it is naive to assume that changing women's attitudes alone will solve the problem. This position in‐itself indicates the unspoken presumption that the male model of work is the norm to which women must adapt.Originality/value – The review shows there is a need for policy actions and initiatives that eliminate the structural barriers in SET career trajectories which currently favour the working preferences of male scientists.

Science on the rise in developing countries.

Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, recently called attention to the clear inequalities in science between developing and developed countries and to the challenges of building bridges across these gaps that should bring the United Nations and the world scientific community closer to each other (Annan 2003). Mr. Annan stressed the importance of reducing the inequalities in science between developed and developing countries, asserting that “This unbalanced distribution of scientific activity generates serious problems not only for the scientific community in the developing countries, but for development itself.” Indeed, Mr. Annan's sentiments have also been echoed recently by several scientists, who present overwhelming evidence for the disparity in scientific output between the developing and already developed countries (Gibbs 1995; May 1997; Goldemberg 1998; Riddoch 2000). For example, recent United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates (UNESCO 2001) indicate that, in 1997, the developed countries accounted for some 84% of the global investment in scientific research and development, had approximately 72% of the world researchers, and produced approximately 88% of all scientific and technical publications registered by the Science Citation Index (SCI). North America and Europe clearly dominate the number of scientific publications produced annually, with 36.6% and 37.5%, respectively, worldwide (UNESCO 2001).

Studying Ourselves: The Academic Labor Market

This paper addresses three academic labor market issues; the declining salaries of faculty employed at public colleges and universities relative to their private institution counterparts, the growing dispersion of average faculty salaries across academic institutions within both the public and private sectors, and the impacts of the growing importance and costs of science on the academic labor market and universities. The decline in the salaries of faculty in public institutions relative to their private sector counterparts is attributed primarily to private institutions' tuition levels rising by more in real terms than public institutions' tuition levels. The growing dispersion in average faculty salaries across institutions within each sector is attributed primarily to the growing disperion of endowmentper student levels across private institutions and the growing dispersion of state appropriations per student across public institutions. Finally, controlling for other factors, those universities whose real research expenditures per faculty from institutional funds are growing the most experience the greatest increase in their student/faculty ratio, other variables held constant.

Women Academic Scientists in India

Gender inequality in science is common to most nations. To a large extent, this inequality is a product of the socio-cultural environment in which science is conducted. The professional environment and the socio-cultural context are inextricably linked together in the practice of science. This Note analyses the perceptions of women academic scientists in India regarding the work and social environment, and the nature of problems faced by them. A triangulation of questionnaire and interview methods was employed to develop a holistic picture. The findings show that women academic scientists are influenced by the prevailing sociocultural system. Thus, ‘patrifocal’ ideology prevails at the workplace and in the family. Women face gender-related difficulties at work, and also shoulder a dual burden resulting in stress. These problems have significant consequences for the career of women academic scientists.

Gender Inequality in Science: A Universal Condition?

Gender Inequality in Science: A Universal Condition?

Cumulative Advantage and Inequality in Science

The hypothesis of cumulative advantage is widely accepted in the sociology of science, but empirical tests have been few and equivocal. One approach, originated by Allison and Stewart (1974), is to see whether inequality of productivity and recognition increases as a cohort of scientists ages. This paper extends their work by examining true cohorts of biochemists and chemists rather than synthetic cohorts. Increasing inequality is observed for counts of publications but not for counts of citations to all previous publications. It is also shown that a mathematical model of cumulative advantage does not imply increasing inequality. When the model is modified to allow for heterogeneity in the rate of cumulative advantage, however, increasing inequality is implied.