Gender-Heterogeneous Working Groups Produce Higher Quality Science
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 30 October 2013
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 8 (10), e79147
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079147
Abstract
Here we present the first empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that a gender-heterogeneous problem-solving team generally produced journal articles perceived to be higher quality by peers than a team comprised of highly-performing individuals of the same gender. Although women were historically underrepresented as principal investigators of working groups, their frequency as PIs at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis is now comparable to the national frequencies in biology and they are now equally qualified, in terms of their impact on the accumulation of ecological knowledge (as measured by the h-index). While women continue to be underrepresented as working group participants, peer-reviewed publications with gender-heterogeneous authorship teams received 34% more citations than publications produced by gender-uniform authorship teams. This suggests that peers citing these publications perceive publications that also happen to have gender-heterogeneous authorship teams as higher quality than publications with gender uniform authorship teams. Promoting diversity not only promotes representation and fairness but may lead to higher quality science.Keywords
Other Versions
This publication has 40 references indexed in Scilit:
- Scientists Want More ChildrenPLOS ONE, 2011
- Are female researchers less cited? A large‐scale study of Norwegian scientistsJournal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2011
- Does gender matter?Nature, 2006
- What Differences Make a Difference?Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2005
- What determines the citation frequency of ecological papers?Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2005
- First-Author DeterminantsSSRN Electronic Journal, 2004
- Joint Effects of Group Efficacy and Gender Diversity on Group Cohesion and PerformanceApplied Psychology, 2003
- WOMEN, SCIENCE, AND ACADEMIAGender & Society, 2001
- Why Differences Make a Difference: A Field Study of Diversity, Conflict and Performance in WorkgroupsAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1999
- Measures of Sex Differences in Scientific ProductivitySocial Forces, 1992