Male scientists more likely to present findings positively
A recent analysis of gender differences in research reporting has found that female scientists are less likely to use positive language to frame their findings than their male counterparts.
Clinical articles with male first or last authors were more likely to contain terms such as "unprecedented" and "unique" in their titles or abstracts than those with female first and last authors.
The new BMJTrusted Source study also found that articles that contain such terms are more likely to have higher rates of subsequent citation.
A scientist's rate of citation — that is, how often other articles reference their work — can impact their career prospects, note the study authors, who hail from the University of Mannheim in Germany, Yale University School of Management in New Haven, CT, and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
"Citations are often used to gauge a researcher's influence, and many organizations use cumulative citations explicitly in their decisions regarding recruitment, promotion, pay, and funding," they write.
Gender disparity is a complex issue
In their study paper, the authors outline the gender disparities present in research communities such as the life sciences and academic medicine.
Not only are females in the minority, but they also earn less and win fewer research grants than males. In addition, their articles tend to gain fewer citations than those of their male colleagues.
"The factors that underlie gender disparities in academia are many and complex," says senior study author Dr. Anupam Jena, "but it is important to be aware that language may also play a role — as both a driver of inequality and as a symptom of gender differences in socialization."
Dr. Jena is an associate professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. He is also an assistant physician in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
He and his colleagues set out to analyze whether or not females and males differ in how positively they express their research findings.
They also wanted to find out whether or not a link exists between such positive framing and higher subsequent citation rates.
Methods and key findings
In total, the team analyzed more than 101,000 clinical research articles and around 6.2 million general life sciences articles that PubMed had published during 2002–2017.
They searched all the titles and abstracts of the articles for use of 25 positive terms, including "unprecedented," "unique," "excellent," and "novel."
Using a software tool called Genderize, they then determined the likely gender of the first and last author of each article using their first name.
In addition, with help from other established tools, they determined the journal impact and rate of citations of each article.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
