The gender gap in commenting: Women are less likely than men to comment on (men’s) published research
Publication type
journal article
Publication date
2020
Author(s)
Wu, C.
Fuller, S.
Shi, Z.
Wilkes, R.
Language
English
View point(s)
Global
Abstract
Subtle gender dynamics in the publishing process involving collaboration, peer-review, readership, citation, and media coverage disadvantage women in academia. In this study we consider whether commenting on published work is also gendered. Using all the comments published over a 16-year period in PNAS (N = 869) and Science (N = 481), we find that there is a gender gap in the authorship of comment letters: women are less likely than men to comment on published academic research. This disparity is greater than gender differences in the publication of research articles. There is also a gendered pattern in commenting: women comment writers are relatively less likely to engage with men’s research. If left unaddressed, these patterns in academic commenting could impede scholarly exchange between men and women and further marginalize women within the scientific community. © 2020 Wu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Journal
PLoS ONE
ISSN
1932-6203
Volume
15
Issue
4
Pagination
e0230043