Research Mentor(s)
Bruna, Sean
Description
The editorial boards of academic journals act as gatekeepers to maintain the scientific integrity and standards of journals while identifying emerging and innovative research. We introduce The Gatekeeper Project (Bruna 2017, http://brunalab.org/gatekeepers/) as an attempt to crowdsource data collection on the composition of the boards. We seek to understand how and why board composition varies within and across disciplines and use these data to help scholars, academic societies, editors, and publishers in their efforts to make the boards of our journals more inclusive and diverse. In this presentation we address findings from an examination of 40 years of anthropology journals. Data on Editorial Board composition was collected in two databases. Role based analysis included individuals serving multi-year terms in one editorial role, however, each individual was only counted once. Time based analysis included all board members for each year, and individuals were counted independently each year. All data was analyzed and graphed with R version 3.3.2 with the gplots and corrplot packages. Although the trend was towards improvement over time, particularly following the formation of the AA Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology (CoGEA) in 1995, there was surprising variation between journals, including those with similar subdisciplinary foci. We also address correlation between editorial roles and gender, where female Editors in Chief are drivers for female Editorial Boards. While demographic changes in academia may reduce these disparities over time, we argue journals should proactively strive for gender parity on their editorial boards.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
17-5-2017 12:00 PM
End Date
17-5-2017 3:00 PM
Department
Anthropology
Genre/Form
student projects; posters
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Boards of directors--United States--Periodicals; Journalistic ethics; Gender identity in mass media
Geographic Coverage
United States
Type
Image
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this documentation for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Included in
The Gatekeeper Project: Crowdsourced Examination of the Gender Composition of Anthropology Journals
The editorial boards of academic journals act as gatekeepers to maintain the scientific integrity and standards of journals while identifying emerging and innovative research. We introduce The Gatekeeper Project (Bruna 2017, http://brunalab.org/gatekeepers/) as an attempt to crowdsource data collection on the composition of the boards. We seek to understand how and why board composition varies within and across disciplines and use these data to help scholars, academic societies, editors, and publishers in their efforts to make the boards of our journals more inclusive and diverse. In this presentation we address findings from an examination of 40 years of anthropology journals. Data on Editorial Board composition was collected in two databases. Role based analysis included individuals serving multi-year terms in one editorial role, however, each individual was only counted once. Time based analysis included all board members for each year, and individuals were counted independently each year. All data was analyzed and graphed with R version 3.3.2 with the gplots and corrplot packages. Although the trend was towards improvement over time, particularly following the formation of the AA Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology (CoGEA) in 1995, there was surprising variation between journals, including those with similar subdisciplinary foci. We also address correlation between editorial roles and gender, where female Editors in Chief are drivers for female Editorial Boards. While demographic changes in academia may reduce these disparities over time, we argue journals should proactively strive for gender parity on their editorial boards.