The impact of caring for children on women’s research output: A retrospective cohort study

We used a retrospective cohort study to measure the impact of caring for children on female Australian researchers. Our aim was to see whether caring for children was associated with reduced outputs and collaboration. Women were randomly selected for inclusion if they published a first author paper in one of three Australian journals during 2007 to 2015, women who did not publish during this time were not included. One-hundred and sixty women were approached and 95 (59%) completed a survey on their history of caring for children. Two key outcomes were the women’s publication and citation counts, which were accessed from Scopus. We also examined the number of authors, affiliations and countries on their published papers, as a reduction in these numbers could indicate an impaired ability to collaborate. We examined the probability of being first or last author as a measure of esteem. There was a small increase in publication counts after the first child that was reversed after the second child. Average citations counts declined after children, particularly after the second child. There was some evidence of a reduced collaboration with overseas collaborators after the first child. The probability of being the last author increased after the second child. Three women were identified as statistically influential and all three had children and were in the top 10% of overall publications and citations. After removing these women the estimated changes in outcomes were noticeably different for most of the outcomes. The repeated presence of statistically influential women shows that it may be impossible to find an “average impact” of caring for children when considering research output. Adjustments may need to be made individually, with women explaining how caring for children has altered their career.

本研究采用回顾性队列研究设计，评估育儿对澳大利亚女性科研人员的影响，旨在探讨育儿是否与科研产出减少及合作规模缩减存在关联。研究纳入2007年至2015年间在澳大利亚3种期刊发表过第一作者论文的女性科研人员，未在此期间发表论文者不予纳入。本次研究共邀请160名女性参与，最终95人（回收率59%）完成了关于育儿经历的调查问卷。本研究的两项核心结局指标为科研人员的论文发表量与被引频次，相关数据从Scopus数据库获取。此外，本研究还分析了其已发表论文的作者数、合作机构数及合作国家数——上述指标的减少可提示科研合作能力受损；同时以担任第一作者或末位作者的概率作为学术认可度的衡量指标。分析结果显示，生育第一胎后女性的论文发表量小幅上升，但生育第二胎后该上升趋势发生逆转；生育后女性的平均被引频次出现下降，尤以生育第二胎后下降最为显著。有迹象表明，生育第一胎后，女性与海外合作者的合作频次有所减少；生育第二胎后，女性担任末位作者的概率有所上升。研究共识别出3名具有统计学影响力的科研人员，此3人均已生育，且论文总发表量与总被引频次均处于全部研究对象的前10%。剔除这3名科研人员后，绝大多数结局指标的估算变化幅度均出现显著改变。具有统计学影响力的女性科研人员始终存在，这提示在评估育儿对科研产出的影响时，或许无法得到统一的“平均影响”结论，因此需针对个体情况进行调整，由女性科研人员自行阐述育儿对其职业发展的具体影响。