Differences in Collaboration Patterns across Discipline, Career Stage, and Gender.
Collaboration plays an increasingly important role in promoting research productivity and impact. What remains unclear is whether female and male researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) disciplines differ in their collaboration propensity. Here, we report on an empirical analysis of the complete publication records of 3,980 faculty members in six STEM disciplines at select U.S. research universities. We find that female faculty have significantly fewer distinct co-authors over their careers than males, but that this difference can be fully accounted for by females' lower publication rate and shorter career lengths. Next, we find that female scientists have a lower probability of repeating previous co-authors than males, an intriguing result because prior research shows that teams involving new collaborations produce work with higher impact. Finally, we find evidence for gender segregation in some sub-disciplines in molecular biology, in particular in genomics where we find female faculty to be clearly under-represented.
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.
Xiao Han T
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8771-9314
XH
Zeng
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.|Department d'Enginyeria Informàtica i Matemàtiques, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
Jordi
J
Duch
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.|Department d'Enginyeria Química, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
Marta
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8140-6525
M
Sales-Pardo
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.
João A G
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5594-3431
JA
Moreira
Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research, School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America.
Filippo
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8352-1287
F
Radicchi
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.|Departamento Fisica, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Parana, Brazil.
Haroldo V
HV
Ribeiro
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.|Institute for Women's Health Research, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
Teresa K
TK
Woodruff
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.|Department of Physics & Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.|Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.
Luís A Nunes
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3762-789X
LA
Amaral
D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009790:Occupations; D011643:Publishing; D012106:Research; D012737:Sex Factors