The gender gap in commenting: Women are less likely than men to comment on (men's) published research.

ABSTRACT: Subtle gender dynamics in the publishing process involving collaboration, peer-review, readership, citation, and media coverage disadvantage women in academia. In this study we consider whether commenting on published work is also gendered. Using all the comments published over a 16-year period in PNAS (N = 869) and Science (N = 481), we find that there is a gender gap in the authorship of comment letters: women are less likely than men to comment on published academic research. This disparity is greater than gender differences in the publication of research articles. There is also a gendered pattern in commenting: women comment writers are relatively less likely to engage with men's research. If left unaddressed, these patterns in academic commenting could impede scholarly exchange betwee

SUBMITTER: Wu C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7112170 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature