No Progress in Increasing Gender Diversity in Academic Publishing in the Field of Chemistry

A new analysis by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco finds that the percentages of female first and corresponding authors of papers in chemistry journals haven’t increased in the last decade and a half. The research analyzed studies published in 15 leading chemistry journals since 2005.

The study found that women made up only a small percentage of lead authors and senior authors. Furthermore, they found that there had been little progress toward parity over the past 15 years. The small number of women authors is related to the percentage of women in academic chemistry. Women make up 39 percent of the graduate students in chemistry but only 12 percent of chemistry faculty in higher education, according to the analysis.

Out of the journals studied, ACS Chemical Biology had the highest representation of women authors, with about 35 percent of its papers listing a female first author and 18 percent ­listing female corresponding authors. Medicinal chemistry journals usually had markedly higher representation of female authors than other chemistry subdisciplines.

The authors conclude that “it is clear that  there is still a large problem in our field that needs to be addressed.”

The full study, “Examining Gender Imbalance in Chemistry Authorship,” may be found here.