title: Scientific consensus, the law, and same sex parenting outcomes.
abstract: While the US Supreme Court was considering two related cases involving the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, one major question informing that decision was whether scientific research had achieved consensus regarding how children of same-sex couples fare. Determining the extent of consensus has become a key aspect of how social science evidence and testimony is accepted by the courts. Here, we show how a method of analyzing temporal patterns in citation networks can be used to assess the state of social scientific literature as a means to inform just such a question. Patterns of clustering within these citation networks reveal whether and when consensus arises within a scientific field. We find that the literature on outcomes for children of same-sex parents is marked by scientific consensus that they experience "no differences" compared to children from other parental configurations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health & Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado Denver, Campus Box 188, PO Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217-3364, United States. Electronic address: jimi.adams@ucdenver.edu.
authors.forename: Jimi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: adams
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Oregon, 1291 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, United States. Electronic address: light@uoregon.edu.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Light
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015706:Bibliometrics; D002648:Child; D002668:Child Rearing; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D032921:Consensus; D005104:Expert Testimony; D005191:Family Characteristics; D063509:Homophobia; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents; D012586:Science; D012942:Social Sciences; D014481:United States
keywords: Citation networks; Same-sex parents; Same-sex unions; Scientific consensus; Sociology of law