Peer review and gender bias: A study on 145 scholarly journals
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 8 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science Advances
- Vol. 7 (2), eabd0299
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd0299
Abstract
Scholarly journals are often blamed for a gender gap in publication rates, but it is unclear whether peer review and editorial processes contribute to it. This article examines gender bias in peer review with data for 145 journals in various fields of research, including about 1.7 million authors and 740,000 referees. We reconstructed three possible sources of bias, i.e., the editorial selection of referees, referee recommendations, and editorial decisions, and examined all their possible relationships. Results showed that manuscripts written by women as solo authors or coauthored by women were treated even more favorably by referees and editors. Although there were some differences between fields of research, our findings suggest that peer review and editorial processes do not penalize manuscripts by women. However, increasing gender diversity in editorial teams and referee pools could help journals inform potential authors about their attention to these factors and so stimulate participation by women.Keywords
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Gender-Heterogeneous Working Groups Produce Higher Quality SciencePLOS ONE, 2013
- The Role of Gender in Scholarly AuthorshipPLOS ONE, 2013
- Bias in peer reviewJournal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2012
- Gender differences in scientific productivity: a persisting phenomenon?Scientometrics, 2012
- Professional Role Confidence and Gendered Persistence in EngineeringAmerican Sociological Review, 2011
- Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in scienceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011
- The “Gender Gap” in Authorship of Academic Medical Literature — A 35-Year PerspectiveThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2006
- Bayes FactorsJournal of the American Statistical Association, 1995
- Bayes FactorsJournal of the American Statistical Association, 1995
- Inference from Iterative Simulation Using Multiple SequencesStatistical Science, 1992