Comparison of the Publishing Patterns between Men and Women Ph.D.s in Librarianship

Abstract

Previous research examining librarians' publishing patterns has established the significance of published research for personal advancement. Studies have found, however, that in comparison with male librarians, female librarians tend to publish in disproportionately small numbers. One rationale offered for this discrepancy is that men receive the Ph.D. more frequently than do women (doctorate-holding librarians have been isolated as the most prolific writers). This study tests the hypothesis that men and women exhibit similar publishing patterns if education is held constant at the doctoral level. The population studied is limited to a random sample of library science Ph.D.s who received their degrees between 1969 and 1979. A list of each person's publications was compiled for the five-year period following receipt of the Ph.D. The citations are classified by gender, occupation, and type of publication and authorship. On the basis of this study, the hypothesis that men and women will exhibit similar publishing patterns cannot be rejected. The difference in the number of citations per person for equal numbers of men and women is insignificant. Differences between men and women when comparing type of publication, type of authorship, or quality of articles are also insignificant. There is, however, a significant difference between the number of unpublished women and the number of unpublished men; almost three times more women than men have no citations listed in "Library Literature." The hypothesis can be rejected when comparing male and female educators. The difference between mean number of citations per person as well as the difference between nonpublishing male and female educators is highly significant. Male educators publish almost twice as many works as do women. Female educators are almost six times as likely as male educators to have published nothing.

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