Men produce an abundance of mediocre science
Thursday, February 1st, 2007The study, conducted by Dr Matthew Symonds from the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne with colleagues from Australia and New Zealand followed 168 biologists from British and Australian universities, all of whose careers began in the early 1990s.
Results showed that the men in the study published 40 percent more papers than women, but that women’s work is cited relatively more often by other scientists, a key indicator of quality.
[...]Dr Symonds said that women are discriminated against by current systems for measuring research performance, which are heavily based on quantity of output.
“Even though women have their work cited relatively more frequently, their lower overall productivity means that this difference in quality of research is often overlooked.â€
Press Release, Full Article (PLos ONE)
Aside: How awesome is it to be able to include a link to the full text of the journal article! Up yours, Eric Dezenhall!