Gender differences in google scholar representation and impact: an empirical analysis of political communication, journalism, health communication, and media psychology

Abstract

Improving gender equality in top-tier scholars and addressing gender bias in research impact are among the significant challenges in academia. However, extant research has observed that lingering gender differences still undermine female scholars. This study examines the recognition of female scholars through Google Scholar data in four different subfields of communication, focusing on two pressing issues: (1) gender representation among the most cited scholars and (2) gender differences in citations. Our findings demonstrate significant differences in gender proportions among the most cited scholars across all subfields, but especially in Political Communication and Journalism. The regression analysis revealed significant differences in citation scores in Political Communication, Journalism, and the pooled sample. However, results revealed that gender differences in research impact were not statistically significant in Health Communication and Media Psychology. Our study advocates for shifts in the citing behavior of communication scholars, emphasizing the importance of actively recognizing and citing studies conducted by female researchers to drive advancements in communication research.