International Research Collaboration Among Top Performers: A Gender Gap Persists

TL;DR

This study reveals a persistent and widening gender gap in international research collaboration among top Polish scientists across multiple STEMM disciplines from 1992 to 2021, with men more likely to collaborate internationally.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of gender disparities in international research collaboration among top performers using bibliometric data and advanced statistical modeling.

Findings

Gender gap in international collaboration widened over 30 years.

Men top performers have an 11% higher probability of international collaboration.

Discipline-specific differences show higher internationalization for men in four STEMM fields.

Abstract

We studied gender differences among Polish top performers (the upper 10% of scientists in terms of research productivity) in international research collaborations in 15 STEMM disciplines and over time. We examined five 6-year periods from 1992 to 2021. We operationalized international research collaboration by using international publication co-authorships in Scopus and used a sample of 152,043 unique Polish authors and their 587,558 articles published in 1992-2021. Our data show that a gender gap in international collaboration by top performers (and among the whole population of scientists) steadily widened: the gap was smallest in the early 1990s and grew over the next 30 years. Among top performers, internationalization intensity in four of the disciplines (AGRI, BIO, ENVI, and MED) was higher for men than for women. To capture the multidimensional nature of international research collaboration, we estimated a fractional logistic regression model with fixed effects that confirmed a persisting moderate but statistically significant international collaboration gender gap among top performers. We found an approximately 11% higher probability of international collaboration by men top performers compared with women top performers. Reflections on bibliometric-driven studies are offered.