Mapping the author gender distribution of disease-specific medical research

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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