Changing the Academic Gender Narrative through Open Access

Katie Wilson, Chun-Kai (Karl) Huang, Lucy Montgomery, Cameron Neylon, Rebecca N. Handcock, Alkim Ozaygen and Aniek Roelofs
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Katie Wilson: School of Education, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Chun-Kai (Karl) Huang: School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Lucy Montgomery: School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Cameron Neylon: School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Rebecca N. Handcock: Curtin Institute for Computation, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Alkim Ozaygen: School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Aniek Roelofs: Curtin Institute for Computation, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia

Publications, 2022, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: In this article, we ask whether dominant narratives of gender and performance within academic institutions are masking stories that may be both more complex and potentially more hopeful than those which are often told using publication-related data. Influenced by world university rankings, institutions emphasise so-called ‘excellent’ research practices: publish in ‘high impact’, elite subscription journals indexed by the commercial bibliographic databases that inform the various ranking systems. In particular, we ask whether data relating to institutional demographics and open access publications could support a different story about the roles that women are playing as pioneers and practitioners of open scholarship. We review gender bias in scholarly publications and discuss examples of open access research publications that highlight a positive advantage for women. Using analysis of workforce demographics and open research data from our Open Knowledge Initiative project, we explore relationships and correlations between academic gender and open access research output from universities in Australia and the United Kingdom. This opens a conversation about different possibilities and models for exploring research output by gender and changing the dominant narrative of deficit in academic publishing.

Keywords: open access; publishing; gender bias; gender disparities; open research; open science; research productivity; academia; women (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A2 D83 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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