key: cord-0743816-39onenur
authors: Mahmoudi, Morteza
title: Gender parity among the Altmetric Top 100 publications on COVID-19
date: 2020-11-02
journal: Future science OA
DOI: 10.2144/fsoa-2020-0175
sha: d1d05d4d9e84aff48e4064d64cbe9b2435c17e94
doc_id: 743816
cord_uid: 39onenur

nan

I analyzed the Altmetrics scores, news coverage, discussions on blogs and mentions on Twitter and Facebook pages (see Figure 1 for details). Strikingly, those outcomes point to gender parity in the importance of the papers among social media researchers, journalists and the general public. Working together, researchers and supportive journalists are increasing awareness on the current issues of gender imbalances in science's backyard [7] . For example, many scientists boycott male-dominated conferences and workshops; and conduct research on gender imbalances and publish their research and experiences in scientific and public forums to raise awareness [7] . These results suggest that the efforts in increasing awareness of the current scientific gender discrepancy among some stakeholders were initially effective, as there were no significant differences between male and female first/last authored papers in terms of Altmetrics scores, news coverage, discussions on blogs and social media coverage in the 100 Altmetric COVID-19 publications. This finding is of great importance as it shows evidence of the significant efficacy of integrated functioning among stakeholders compared with actions by any individual stakeholder. A good example is the recent reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine regarding inefficacy of the existing strong policies and legal recourse in dramatic reduction of the incidence of sexual harassment in academia [8, 9] . In other words, in the absence/lack of integrated function among stakeholders, the individual efforts failed to substantially change the culture that fuels sexual harassment.

Following this seemingly successful initial step in improving gender parity in our scientific backyard, one feasible next step would be to address imbalances in the number of publications across male and female scientists, which requires effective and timely action through the involvement of more influential stakeholders (e.g., grant agencies, institutions, editors and decision makers). Gender balance in the number of publications and authorship (specifically first and last authors) is crucial, as women make up a considerable proportion of the scientific, engineering and health workforce [10] (e.g., ∼52% overall and 38% in academics in the USA alone [11] ). Ultimately, of course, the only effective way to address the current major ethical issues (e.g., academic incivility, racism and gender imbalances) in our scientific backyard is an integrated functioning between all stakeholders (e.g., researchers, funding agencies and decision makers) in a progressive and efficient manner (more in-depth detail on how such integrated functioning works can be found in our recent view point on academic incivility [12] ).

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.future-science.com/doi/suppl with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecomm ons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists

mode=content&search text=%222019-nCoV%22%20OR%20%22COVID-19%22%20OR%20%E2%80%9CSARS-CoV-2 %E2%80%9D%20OR%20%22HCoV-2019%22%20OR%20%22hcov%22%20OR%20%22NCOVID-19%22%20OR%20%20 %22severe%20acute%20respiratory%20syndrome%20coronavirus%202%22%20OR%20%22severe%20acute%20respiratory%20syn drome%20corona%20virus%202%22%20OR%20((%22coronavirus%22%20%20OR%20%22corona%20virus%22)%20AND%20 (Wuhan%20OR%20China%20OR%20novel))&search type=kws&search f ield=f ull search&order=altmetric&and facet year=2020

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11. NSF. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering