Work

Gender differences in collaboration and career progression in physics

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We examine gender differences in collaboration networks and academic career progression in physics. We use the likelihood and time to become a principal investigator (PI) and the length of an author's career to measure career progression. Utilizing logistic regression and accelerated failure time models, we examine whether the effect of collaboration behaviour varies by gender. We find that, controlling for the number of publications, the relationship between collaborative behaviour and career progression is almost the same for men and women. Specifically, we find that those who eventually reach PI status tend to have published with more unique collaborators. In contrast, publishing repeatedly with the same highly interconnected collaborators and/or larger number of co-authors per publication is characteristic of shorter career lengths and not attaining PI status. We observe that women tend to collaborate in more tightly connected and larger groups than men. Finally, we observe that women are less likely to attain the status of PI throughout their careers and have a lower survival probability compared to men, which calls for policies to close this crucial gap.

Source: Royal Society Open Science

DOI: 10.1098/rsos.241536

Authors: Mingrong She, Jan Bachmann, Fariba Karimi, Leto Peel

Institutions: Maastricht University, Central European University, Graz University of Technology, Complexity Science Hub

Language: English

Topic: scientometrics and bibliometrics research

Subfield: Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,471