The study examined the gender and relationships of 1051 leading authors, those scientists with the largest publications in 13 major ecological and conservation journals. The results show that women and the Southern Hemisphere are hardly represented on this list. “The entire list of top authors included only 11% of women, while 75% of the articles related to only five countries in the Global North,” says Bea Maas, lead author from the University of Vienna. “This huge imbalance in scientific authors is a matter of great concern, especially in the field of ecology and conservation, where diverse perspectives are needed to address the challenges of global climate and environment,” Maas confirms.
Analyzed trends over different periods showed that the proportion of female lead authors increased from 3% to 18% between 1945 and 2019, and most recently the Global South represented 25% of the major publishing authors. “The current proportions of women and scientists from Global South in the lead are still far from social or academic distributions, and show a clear need to catch up in promotion. scientific diversity, “says Maas.” Almost no authors from India, China and other densely populated regions that are critical to global conservation and sustainability appear on the list, while few countries. others are not represented at all, “Maas notes.
The lack of female representation and the Southern Hemisphere affects not only a leading author in ecology, but also scientific leadership, according to the study’s authors. “In many fields of science, publication output and in particular key authors determine career development and the allocation of leadership positions,” Maas explains.
The study highlights links between lead author and scientific leadership and makes four specific recommendations to promote scientific diversity:
First, journals and scientific societies should make special efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in leadership recruitment. Second, the authors propose to evaluate a scientific career path based on diverse abilities beyond published results. Third and fourth, the study’s authors advocate for structural changes to promote parental time and diversity among staff, colleagues, and co-authors to promote and protect the integrity of scientific communities. Other proposals that focus specifically on the level of scientific and community authorship, serve, according to Maas “to develop good scientific practice, in particular in terms of promoting diverse and global perspectives in eco- knowledge and conservation. “
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Published in Conservation Letters: Bea Maas, Robin J Pakeman, Laurent Godet, Linnea Smith, Vincent Devictor and Richard Primack (2021). Women and Global South are largely represented among publishing ecologists. Letters of Conservation, in DOI print: 10.1111 / conl.12797
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