Top Academic Positions Research Articles

Women in science: myth, harsh reality, or advantage.

To initiate discussion on women in science, we begin with Gerald Edelman's definition: "Science is imagination in the service of the verifiable truth," which underscores "verifiability," truth reached by evidence, as the pathway science charts to Truth. "Verifiability" is named after the Roman Goddess Veritas, the daughter of Cronos and the mother of Virtus, suggesting that mythology viewed science as embodied by a female, embedded in its historical time, and aimed to breed values. We contemplate three perspectives on the topic and discuss their potential risks. The Veracity (Veritas) Perspective holds that science is impartial to the gender, race, political camp, or religious affiliation of its practitioner and from this perspective "women in sciences" is an oxymoron; science is, essentially, genderless. We argue that this perspective is misleading. Becoming a scientist requires education, resources, encouragement, training, role models, time, and funding, and the lack of such provisions banned women from the gates of Truth. The Harsh Reality perspective brings data presenting a grim picture. From 1902 to 2022 only 3.6% of Nobel Prizes in sciences were awarded to women and percentages of women in top academic positions are a third or lower across the US and Europe despite earning about 50% of PhDs in sciences. We contemplate internal and external reasons for this reality. Finally, the Potential Advantage position asks whether women may have unique sensitivities in the road to cumulative knowledge. We base our discussion on 20th century philosophical models that call to move from the metaphysical and abstract to the daily and contextual in the acquisition of knowledge and on research describing the distinct neural pathways to motherhood and fatherhood. We conclude by highlighting our unique historical time and the emergence of novel topics in neuroscience through the work of female and male scientists; interaction synchrony, inter-brain communication, and social and affiliative neuroscience.

Women representation in soil science: gender indicators in the University Program of Interdisciplinary Soil Studies

IntroductionIn the world, 33% of soils are degraded, and 2.9 million people are affected by land degradation, with problems associated with food security, conflicts over natural resources, and migration with different impacts on men or women. To support sustainable soil management, it is necessary to include women’s contributions to soil Sciences; their achievements and academic performance still need to be represented. Women in Science represent 30% worldwide. In Mexico, only 24% of top academic positions are women. For commitment to soil Sciences for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNAM created the University Program for Interdisciplinary Soil Studies (PUEIS).MethodsThis research evaluates women’s representation through gender indicators in the PUEIS and SNI datasets and discusses their implications for the gender gap in the soil Science community from Mexico. The data was collected with an online semi-structured survey and the gender indicators selected were related to participation, gender gap, sexism, equal opportunities, exclusion, and academic performance.ResultsThe results show that in the PUEIS, 54% of members identify themselves as women and 46% as men. The gender gap shows equality in the total number of members. However, low-rank jobs, such as lecturers and lab technicians are women dominated, and the top-ranked positions as a full professor, associate professor, and research scientist are equal. One result to consider for the PUEIS members is that the younger generation, as is the older generation, is dominated by men. This could indicate a setback in intermediate generations’ progress toward achieving gender equality. In the case of SNI members, there is a gender gap problem; of members with a Ph.D. degree, only 38% are women, and the elite group of scientists with a Ph.D. at the top position is represented only by 24% of females.DiscussionThis work constitutes the first gender exercise for analyzing women’s participation in the soil Sciences in Mexico. From our perspective, it is not about competition in scientific careers between women and men; however, it is essential to recognize that gender inequalities are related to income, professional development, and science funding inequalities, and these disparities impact women more than men.

Job Satisfaction and Perception Among Female Academics During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

The COVID-19 pandemic gave off a huge impact on face-to-face or physical learning and the world now is going virtual online learning and teaching until this pandemic settles. The COVID-19 epidemic has created new obstacles for employees in terms of change adaptation and job security, as well as a significant impact on employee well-being and satisfaction, especially for women. Since 2005, female enrolment in academia has continued to grow, and in many countries, females make up more than fifty per cent of the total enrolment in higher education. However, women remain underrepresented in top academic positions globally. This systematic review aimed to look for available articles related to the job satisfaction and perception of female academics before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PRISMA flow diagram was used to search the literature systematically, and the study's inclusion and exclusion criteria were established prior to the search. The CASP and MMAT were used to conduct the quality assessment. There are six themes emerged from 26 articles in this review and those are an overview of job satisfaction, factors that contribute to job satisfaction, gender gaps related to job satisfaction, academics perception, the mental health of academicians, and the relationship between work from home and job satisfaction. This study recommended for the faculty and university have a serial discussion about maintaining and increasing female academics’ job satisfaction. Therefore, surveys for academicians were vital to learn about their current circumstances, whether in teaching and learning or their psycho-social well-being. Although the university already provides the guidelines for online teaching, it was advisable to review the efficacy of the teaching modalities and infrastructure for the academicians.

Advancing women’s representation in top academic positions – what works?

ABSTRACT Which gender equality measures do Nordic universities use, and to what extent are the measures effective in increasing the share of women in top academic positions? Based on theories that distinguish between actor and structure-oriented measures, and between strategies of inclusion and transformation, we identified four types of measures: career enhancing measures offered for women, training and awareness-raising measures, organizational responsibility measures and preferential treatment measures. We investigated the use and efficacy of the four types of policy measures in 37 universities in Sweden, Norway and Finland, implemented between 1995 and 2018. The policy data was collected through on structured interviews with universities’ HR staff and equality officers. By combining these unique survey data and register data on universities’ teaching and research staff we assess the impact of institutional gender equality policy on the gender composition of academics in grade A positions. We find strong growth in the use of organizational responsibility and awareness-raising measures over time, and weaker use of career enhancing measures and preferential treatment. Overall, the institutional measures have a limited effect on the growth in the share of women in grade A positions. Nonetheless, we find that the implementation of structural measures is associated with the growth of women in grade A positions.

Gender balance in Research Group Leadership at UiT

UiT The Arctic University of Norway has a decade-long tradition of channelling research through formally accredited research groups. These research groups have dynamic structures and networks, unlimited duration, a defined leader, and gather academics of all levels to pursue research on a common topic of interest. The formalisation of research groups at the institution followed strategies aimed at supporting the creation of more robust and resilient research communities and boost cutting-edge research produced at the university.
 Ten years after initiating the formalisation process, UiT has around 196 research groups distributed fairly evenly across faculties by their size. HELSE and HSL are the largest faculties and also the ones with the largest number of research groups. As of June 2020, 57% of these research groups were led by men. This shows that gender balance has been achieved in research group leadership at the university level in terms of numerical parity. While the formalisation of the research groups may have contributed to achieving this balance, data collected for this study represents an inaugural attempt to map gender-disaggregated research group leadership at UiT.
 This report shows that the gender distribution in research group leadership across faculties and departments or centres follows the remaining disparities existing in top academic positions (professor and docent) as they were observed in former studies conducted by the Prestige Project. This result is consistent since 93% of all research groups at UiT are led either by associate professors or professors. BFE, HELSE, and HSL are the most gender-balanced faculties, while IVT and NT are the least balanced. At IVT and NT faculties, 80% of the research groups are led by men. At the faculties that follow a level system for research groups (HSL and JUR), women currently lead more top-level groups than men.
 Despite the achievement of gender balance in research group leadership functions at UiT, a survey conducted by the Prestige Project that complements the dataset showed that gender shapes relevant differences regarding the basic structure of research groups and their leadership roles. Highlights of these differences can be systematised as follows:
 (1) The average size of research groups at UiT is 12.6 members. Men tend to lead smaller groups with a higher proportion of members holding 50% or more research contracts. (2) Most of the research groups at UiT follows a “stjerneklubb” structure, in which leaders are one of the several key researchers within the group. Three times more men than women reported leading a group with a “rakett” structure, in which the leader is the group’s key researcher. (3) Concerning the reported activity level following each groups evaluated potential from the leader’s perspective, men reported a higher maximal achievement of the group’s potential. At the same time, women indicated greater room for improvement. (4) Finally, regarding leadership and leadership roles, men have been more often appointed as leaders by the head of departments or centres, while women have more often been chosen by the group members. Furthermore, while both men and women in leadership roles engage equally in managerial tasks in their functions as research group leaders, men reported performing more of the tasks associated with a leadership role. Twice as many men reported that they set the group's research agenda and control the workflow of delegated tasks.
 We do not claim that these differences are necessarily negative since they can also be seen as a sign that gender balance increases the diversity of approaches in leadership at the university, which is a desirable aim in fostering excellence. The meaning of these differences has to be investigated further in future research.

Graduate programme outcomes in history, 1990–2015: a humanities case study in Canada

ABSTRACTDuring the last decade, scholars and journalists in Canada raised alarm bells about the efficacy and viability of graduate humanities programmes across the country. The Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan decided to analyse the outcomes of its graduate programmes at the Doctoral and Master's levels, from 1990 to 2015. We learned that our students complete their programmes in a timely manner, their attrition rates are lower than expected, and most are finding employment in relevant fields, including academia, administration, and public history. However, we also discovered a trend of gender inequity that warrants attention. Although the proportion of male and female graduate students entering our programmes was about equal, our female students withdrew more often and took longer to complete their degrees. In addition, our female graduates were not hired in the top academic positions at the same rate as their male counterparts.

Impact factor of medical education journals and recently developed indices: Can any of them support academic promotion criteria?

Journal Impact Factor (JIF) has been used in assessing scientific journals. Other indices, h- and g-indices and Article Influence Score (AIS), have been developed to overcome some limitations of JIF. The aims of this study were, first, to critically assess the use of JIF and other parameters related to medical education research, and second, to discuss the capacity of these indices in assessing research productivity as well as their utility in academic promotion. The JIF of 16 medical education journals from 2000 to 2011 was examined together with the research evidence about JIF in assessing research outcomes of medical educators. The findings were discussed in light of the nonnumerical criteria often used in academic promotion. In conclusion, JIF was not designed for assessing individual or group research performance, and it seems unsuitable for such purposes. Although the g- and h-indices have demonstrated promising outcomes, further developments are needed for their use as academic promotion criteria. For top academic positions, additional criteria could include leadership, evidence of international impact, and contributions to the advancement of knowledge with regard to medical education.

The Composition of the Editorial Boards of General Marketing Journals

Unlike the diversity issues in corporate governance, the diversity in top academic positions (e.g., editorial boards of academic journals in business) is rather underresearched. The editorial boards of academic marketing journals are important gatekeepers and trendsetters in the creation and dissemination of marketing knowledge. Membership on journal editorial boards usually signals scholarly stature and professional advancement. This study examines the composition of editorial boards of general marketing journals, and compares it with what it was like 15 years ago. The study also investigates the impact of the composition of editorial boards on journal quality. We find that women’s participation in editorial boards generally corresponds to their presence in the profession. We also find an overall small representation of board members affiliated with nonacademic institutions. While the presence of women, practitioners, or international members does not have any relationship with journal quality, the presence of scholars affiliated with doctoral programs seems to correlate with journal quality. The number of female and international members on the boards increased, whereas practitioners’ representation dropped from 1997 to 2012.

Does Gender Matter for Academic Promotion? Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment

Several countries have recently introduced gender quotas in hiring and promotion committees at universities. This paper studies whether these policies increase the presence of women in top academic positions. The identification strategy exploits the random assignment mechanism in place between 2002 and 2006 in all academic disciplines in Spain to select the members of promotion committees. We find that a larger proportion of female evaluators increases the chances of success of female applicants to full professor positions. The magnitude of the effect is large: each additional woman on a committee composed of seven members increases the number of women promoted to full professor by 14%. Conversely, when committee members decide on promotions to associate professor positions, we do not observe any significant interaction between the gender of evaluators and the gender of candidates. If anything, in this case a larger share of female evaluators is associated with fewer successful female applicants. The evidence is consistent with the existence of ambivalent sexism.

Lectio Doctoralis: the geometric progress of knowledge and the erratic course of a life: a memoir.

hormones with proteins have shed new light on the mechanisms of transport (influx and efflux) of the lipophylic hormones across the plasma membrane. Scientist and charismatic scholar, Jack Robbins attracted several Italian scientists to his branch. The earliest was Mario Andreoli, professor of medicine at the University La Sapienza. Professor Andreoli is present today with all the Italian fellows of Jack Robbins. These fellows have now reached, or are on their way to reaching, top academic positions. Indeed, these fellows are acknowledged scientists in the international scientific community, also because of the relationship that the unforgettable Gaetano Salvatore established with Jack Robbins. After the premature departure of Nino, Giancarlo Vecchio, who is a distinguished scientist and Fogarty Scholar, and a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, has continued that relationship. Together with Mario Andreoli and Giancarlo Vecchio are Fabrizio Monaco, Luigi Bartalena and Alfredo Pontecorvi, Marco Centanni, Salvatore Benvenga, Daniela Foti, Antonella Farsetti, Gianni Salabe, and Settimio Grimaldi. With these Italian fellows and two Belgian fellows (Philippe De Nayer and Daniel Glinoer), many eminent scholars have also gathered here. These scholars are Aldo Pinchera, a worldwide recognized scientist who is deputy vice president of the Consiglio Universitario Nazionale; Riccardo Vigneri, a leading scientist in the field of endocrine and metabolic physiopathology, and thyroid oncology; Enio Martino, president of the collegium of the full professors of endocrinology; Eduardo Consiglio, director of Centro di Endocrinologia ed Oncologia Sperimentale of the National Research Council, which is an institution founded by Nino Salvatore and a hinge of the Italy-National Institutes of Health relationship. The presence of these scholars signifies that Italian endocrinology is pleased by the tribute that the University of Messina is paying to Jack Robbins.