Investigating journal selection decisions: A survey of academic researchers

The influence of gender on researchers’ journal selection decisions intends to add to past studies on the impact of gender on academic career development and publication success. According to a previous study, female academics had a lower career advancement and publication rate than male academics. According to research, several explicit factors might impact this situation, including hiring bias, discipline choice, and women’s underrepresentation in the academic field. However, no previous research has observed the aspects that may have a role in the publishing process. This paper examines gender variations in journal selection characteristics such as expectations about the reviewing process, university regulations and norms, knowledge with the journal, confidence, and publication goals, using data from an international survey. While both genders recognise the importance of some elements, it is clear that women are more sensitive to authority concerns, expectations put on them for writing high-quality articles, and job advancement than males. Men place a higher value on familiarity, experience, and quickness than women. The findings show that women are focused on what it takes to succeed in academia, but more study on women’s relative involvement in all elements of scholarly publication would assist in presenting a complete picture.

Quantitative research, on the other hand, must be supplemented with qualitative studies that provide a wider variety of insights into journal selection decisions and other aspects of the processes and politics of the academic communication environment. Another intriguing area of research would be the relative involvement of men and women in the review process, specifically the gender distribution of both review invitations and invitation acceptance.

References

Rowley, Jennifer, and Laura Sbaffi. “Investigating gender differences in journal selection decisions: A survey of academic researchers.” Learned Publishing 34.3 (2021): 294-304.