Ladies, gentlemen, and scientific publication at the Royal Society, 1945-1990

Camilla Mork Rostvik; Aileen Fyfe

doi:10.16995/olh.265

Ladies, gentlemen, and scientific publication at the Royal Society, 1945-1990

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This paper extends the scholarship on gender and scientific authorship by exploring women’s involvement in editorial decision-making. Prior to 1945, women scientists could submit their work to the journals of the Royal Society, but they were excluded from all editorial and evaluation roles: such gate-keeping roles were reserved for Fellows of the Society. We draw upon the Society’s archive to examine the experiences of female authors, referees, and communicators in the period after women were admitted to the Fellowship. We investigate the involvement of women in both anonymous roles (e.g. as referees), and in publicly-visible positions of editorial responsibility (e.g. as communicators, and committee chairs). We reveal that women were better represented in both types of roles in the 1950s than in the 1970s and 1980s. These findings are pertinent to current debates about bias in the peer-review system, and the gendering of academic reward and recognition structures.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-40
Journal	Open Library of Humanities
Volume	4
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.265
Publication status	Published - 27 Jun 2018

Keywords

Royal Society
Gender
Peer review
Editorial practices
Higher education
History of Science

Access to Document

10.16995/olh.265

RostvikFyfe_2017_OLH_LadiesGentlemen_SubmittedManuscript
[Submitted Manuscript] Copyright the Authors 2018. This is the submitted version, please do not circulate without the authors’ consent.
Submitted manuscript, 550 KB
RostvikFyfe_2018_OLH_LadiesGentlemen_AcceptedManuscript
[Accepted Manuscript] © the Authors. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/olh.265
Accepted author manuscript, 706 KB
RostvikFyfe_2018_OLH_LadiesGentlemen_Final-Published-Version
[Final published version] © 2018 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 637 KBLicence: CC BY

1 Finished

Publishing the Philosophical Transaction: Publishing the Philosophical Transactions: the social, cultural & economic history of a learned journal 1665 - 2015
Fyfe, A. (PI), McDougall-Waters, J. (CoI), Moxham, N. J. (CoI), McDougall-Waters, J. (Researcher), Moxham, N. J. (Researcher) & Rostvik, C. M. (Researcher)
Arts and Humanities Research Council
1/05/13 → 31/08/17
Project: Standard

1 Comment/debate
1 Web publication/site

How female fellows fared at the Royal Society: Archive study shows that formal inclusion of women does not automatically lead to their full participation, say Aileen Fyfe and Camilla Mørk Røstvik
Fyfe, A. & Rostvik, C. M., 6 Mar 2018, In: Nature. 555, 7695, p. 159-161
Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate
Then and now – exploring diversity in peer review at the Royal Society
Fyfe, A., 10 Sept 2018
Research output: Non-textual form › Web publication/site

Open Access

Cite this

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title = "Ladies, gentlemen, and scientific publication at the Royal Society, 1945-1990",

abstract = "This paper extends the scholarship on gender and scientific authorship by exploring women{\textquoteright}s involvement in editorial decision-making. Prior to 1945, women scientists could submit their work to the journals of the Royal Society, but they were excluded from all editorial and evaluation roles: such gate-keeping roles were reserved for Fellows of the Society. We draw upon the Society{\textquoteright}s archive to examine the experiences of female authors, referees, and communicators in the period after women were admitted to the Fellowship. We investigate the involvement of women in both anonymous roles (e.g. as referees), and in publicly-visible positions of editorial responsibility (e.g. as communicators, and committee chairs). We reveal that women were better represented in both types of roles in the 1950s than in the 1970s and 1980s. These findings are pertinent to current debates about bias in the peer-review system, and the gendering of academic reward and recognition structures.",

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AB - This paper extends the scholarship on gender and scientific authorship by exploring women’s involvement in editorial decision-making. Prior to 1945, women scientists could submit their work to the journals of the Royal Society, but they were excluded from all editorial and evaluation roles: such gate-keeping roles were reserved for Fellows of the Society. We draw upon the Society’s archive to examine the experiences of female authors, referees, and communicators in the period after women were admitted to the Fellowship. We investigate the involvement of women in both anonymous roles (e.g. as referees), and in publicly-visible positions of editorial responsibility (e.g. as communicators, and committee chairs). We reveal that women were better represented in both types of roles in the 1950s than in the 1970s and 1980s. These findings are pertinent to current debates about bias in the peer-review system, and the gendering of academic reward and recognition structures.

KW - Royal Society

KW - Gender

KW - Peer review

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KW - Higher education

KW - History of Science

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Ladies, gentlemen, and scientific publication at the Royal Society, 1945-1990

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

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Projects

Publishing the Philosophical Transaction: Publishing the Philosophical Transactions: the social, cultural & economic history of a learned journal 1665 - 2015

Research output

How female fellows fared at the Royal Society: Archive study shows that formal inclusion of women does not automatically lead to their full participation, say Aileen Fyfe and Camilla Mørk Røstvik

Then and now – exploring diversity in peer review at the Royal Society

Cite this