Scientific conferences provide valuable opportunities for researchers across career stages and disciplines to present their latest work, and to network with their peers. This research finds that many meetings could still be improved significantly in terms of diversity, inclusivity, promoting early career researcher (ECR) networking and career development and venue accessibility.
While in recent years there has been some progress in addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM subjects, other characteristics that have the potential to impact on equality of opportunity have received less attention. Socioeconomic background and ethnicity were associated with different measures of career progression. (2020)
In an analysis of biosciences journal eLife looking at the demographics of authors and gatekeepers (editors and peer reviewers), and peer review outcomes of all submissions between 2012 and 2017, there is evidence that peer review outcomes were influenced by homophily —a preference of gatekeepers for manuscripts from authors with shared characteristics. (2019)
Research intense universities with a higher previous share of female professors provide more generous maternity pay. More generous maternity leave provisions lead to a higher share of female professors and female academics in the highest salary bracket, especially at research intense universities. (2019)
Just 0.6% of UK Professors within higher education institutes are Black (n=85), and of those only 25 are women. The study examines, through one-to-one interviews, the experiences of 20 of the 25 UK Black female Professors. Black in this context refers to those of African, Caribbean and other Black background. (2019)
For biomedical research, sex remains largely under-reported. Papers with female first and last authors have an increased probability of reporting sex, and sex-related reporting was associated with publications in journals with low journal impact factors. (2019)
Gender gaps in grant funding are attributable to less favourable assessments of women as principal investigators, not of the quality of their proposed research. (2019)
Gender inequalities among authors who contributed equally raise concerns about female authors not receiving proper credit for publications. This suggests a need for journals to request clarity on the method used to decide author order among those who contributed equally. (2019)
Polygenic risk score (PRS) for schizophrenia is more strongly associated with ancestry than with schizophrenia, suggesting a need for greater diversity in genomics and caution in inequalities in the applicability of PRSs. (2018)
