mapping the author gender distribution of disease-specific medical research
TRANSCRIPT
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
MAPPING THE AUTHOR GENDER-DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASE-SPECIFIC MEDICAL RESEARCH
Jens Peter Andersen, Jesper Wiborg Schneider & Mathias Wullum NielsenDanish Centre for Studies on Research and Research Policy, Aarhus University & History Department, Stanford University
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
Call for Diversity: Underrepresentation of women in biomedical research (PNAS)
NIH, EU, LERU: Diversity => enhance knowledge outcomes
Is there a ghettoisation of female-dominated health research?
Underrepresentation of female patients in clinical evidence base, e.g. for cardiovascular health
PREMISE
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
xkcd.com/385/
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
Gender shapes cognition, experience and perspective.
Gender diversity => conglomeration of worldviews, orientations and interests that women, men and other genders bring into the scientific enterprise
BRIEF PRIMER ON GENDER
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
PubMed Medline records matched to Web of Science
PubMed: Medical subject headings (MeSH) => disease categorisation
MATERIAL
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
• All MeSH Categories• Diseases Category
• Animal Diseases• Abortion, Veterinary +• Actinobacillosis• …
• Bacterial Infections and Mycoses• Bacterial Infections +• Central Nervous System Infections +• …
• Cardiovascular Diseases• Cardiovascular Abnormalities +• Cardiovascular Infections +• Heart Diseases +
MESH
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
DATA
All documents
(2008-2015)n = 2,512,37
n = 2,124,498 n = 1,754,188
Docs matched to Wos, gender
determined for all authors
n = 1,542,050Gender not determined
for 1+ author(s)
n = 212,138
Group authors, first name length
= 1n = 370,310
Unable to match to
WoSn =
387,873
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
DETERMING GENDER
KIM?KIMDenmark
2% 98%South Korea
68% 32%USA
68% 32%
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
Each author of a paper is assigned a probability of being female, f, extracted from gender-api.com
Each paper is assigned a weighted probability, fw = sum(f)/n
Other options: binary f, f(first author), f(last author)
GENDER INDICATOR
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
N mesh disease terms = 4,709fw for all mesh = 0.35 (~ Gaussian)
OVERALL FINDINGS
All MeSH…
Neurobehavioral manifestations
Female urogenital diseases
Male urogenital diseases
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
GENDER PER DISEASE
DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER 15 SEPTEMBER 2016JENS PETER ANDERSEN2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
INDICATORS CONFERENCE 2016
DISCUSSION Female-dominated research:
› Female body-specific diseases› “softer” approaches, communication
Further research:› Variation in and among medical specialties› Accounting for country› Connection between funding for diseases and gender diversity› Impact
2 DANISH CENTRE FOR STUDIES INRESEARCH AND RESEARCH POLICY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCEAARHUS UNIVERSITY
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