Where power and scholarship collide: Gender and coauthorship in public administration research

Abstract

Publishing is a source of capital and power in academia, and coauthoring is a common way to publish. However, studies in public administration have not yet examined the structure of coauthorship patterns, how these patterns have evolved over time, or the extent to which these patterns are gendered. We use bibliometric data to examine coauthorship in public administration scholarship over four decades with a particular focus on gendered patterns. Descriptive statistics, regression, and social network analysis suggest that when women are first authors, the research team is more likely to contain other women and while women are increasingly represented in coauthorship structures, men-only groups of coauthors continue to persist. These findings have implications for the coauthoring practices of individual scholars, perceptions of coauthorship in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions, and efforts in the field to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.