Gender inequality and self-publication patterns among scientific editors

TL;DR

This study analyzes gender disparities among scientific editors and their self-publication behaviors over five decades, revealing significant underrepresentation of women in editorial roles and patterns of self-publishing that vary by gender and editorial position.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of gender inequality in editorial positions and self-publication patterns using a large, multi-disciplinary dataset, filling gaps in existing literature.

Findings

Women are underrepresented among editors (14%) and editors-in-chief (8%) compared to scientists (26%).

8% of editors double their publication rate in their own journal after becoming editors.

Men are more likely than women to engage in self-publication behaviors.

Abstract

Academic publishing is the principal medium of documenting and disseminating scientific discoveries. At the heart of its daily operations are the editorial boards. Despite their activities and recruitment often being opaque to outside observers, they play a crucial role in promoting fair evaluations and gender parity. Literature on gender inequality lacks the connection between women as editors and as research-active scientists, thereby missing the comparison between the gender balances in these two academic roles. Literature on editorial fairness similarly lacks longitudinal studies on the conflicts of interest arising from editors being research active, which motivates them to expedite the publication of their papers. We fill these gaps using a dataset of 103,000 editors, 240 million authors, and 220 million publications spanning five decades and 15 disciplines. This unique dataset allows us to compare the proportion of female editors to that of female scientists in any given year or discipline. Although women are already underrepresented in science (26%), they are even more so among editors (14%) and editors-in-chief (8%); the lack of women with long-enough publishing careers explains the gender gap among editors, but not editors-in-chief, suggesting that other factors may be at play. Our dataset also allows us to study the self-publication patterns of editors, revealing that 8% of them double the rate at which they publish in their own journal soon after the editorship starts, and this behavior is accentuated in journals where the editors-in-chief self-publish excessively. Finally, men are more likely to engage in this behaviour than women.