Does Gender Predict Research Productivity? The Case of Prolific Suicidologists.

Abstract

Aims: While there is substantial literature on gender and research productivity, bearing mixed results, no study is available for suicidology. The present investigation fills this gap and focuses on an influential elite. Methods: Data are taken from the Web of Science (WoS). They refer to the most prolific suicidologists (N = 116) with 70 or more works on the subject of suicide cited in WoS. Measures of research productivity include the number of works on suicide, citations to these works, and the h-index. The link between gender and the measures of research productivity is adjusted for years of experience, membership in a local research cluster, and region of the world. Results: Adjusting for the other predictors, males had more publications than females. However, gender did not predict either measure of quality of research (citations, h-index). Years of experience, as well as membership in a research cluster, predicted research productivity in most analyses. Region was unrelated to research productivity. Limitations: Further work on productivity might assess additional potential predictors including marital status, grant funding, and presence of young children. Conclusion: There is no significant difference between the genders in research quality. Similar results have been noted in previous work on prolific scientists.