National and Gender Diversity in Communication

The corresponding journal article can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2020.1804434

Researchers’ national and gender diversity are some of the most important goals of our discipline in order to ensure the representation of diverse perspectives. And much has been done at the level of universities and associations to follow-up on this goal. Nevertheless, there ist still room for development and the status-quo needs continuous monitoring. Diversity can be made tangible by examing the diversity of authors and board members of scientific journals. We conducted a content analysis of the national and gender diversity of authors and editorial board members of six communication journals between 2006 and 2016. National diversity is low in journals and editorial boards: 80% of the 18,175 authors are affiliated with 11% of the 91 nations; however, national diversity has significantly increased across all journals. Gender distribution is balanced among US authors, but not among authors from other continents. Editorial boards have significantly more male than female members. We will discuss the necessity to develop benchmarks, how to weigh in research quality and diversity, and, we suggest measures to achieve diversity in academic associations, universities and research institutions.

相关研究论文可查阅于此：https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2020.1804434。研究人员在国家与性别层面的多元化，是我学科领域至关重要的目标，旨在确保多元视角的代表性。为此，各大高校及协会已付出诸多努力以实现此目标。然而，仍存在发展空间，现状亦需持续监督。通过考察科学期刊作者及编委会成员的国家与性别多元化，可将多元化具象化。我们对2006年至2016年间六本传播学期刊的作者和编委会成员的国家与性别多元化进行了内容分析。在期刊及编委会中，国家多元化程度较低：18,175位作者中，80%隶属于91个国家的11%；然而，所有期刊的国家多元化均有显著提升。美国作者的性别分布相对均衡，但其他大陆作者的性别分布则不然。编委会中男性成员显著多于女性。我们将讨论制定基准的必要性、如何权衡研究质量与多元化，并提出实现学术协会、高校及研究机构多元化的建议。