Gender consequences of a national performance-based funding model: new pieces in an old puzzle

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

This article investigates the extent to which the Danish Bibliometric Research Indicator (BRI) reflects the performance of men and women differently. The model is based on a differentiated counting of peer-reviewed publications, awarding three and eight points for contributions to ‘well-regarded’ and highly selective journals and book publishers, and 1 and 5 points for equivalent scientific contributions via ‘normal level’ channels. On the basis of bibliometric data, the study shows that the BRI considerably widens the existing gender gap in researcher performance, since men on average receive more BRI points for their publications than women. The article suggests two probable explanations: (A) women merely comprise 24% of the committee members determining which publication channels to classify as ‘well-regarded’ and ‘normal’, which may lead to biases in the classification process. (B) The model privileges collaborative research, which disadvantages women due to gender differences in collaborative network relations.

Original languageEnglish
JournalStudies in Higher Education
Volume42
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)1033-1055
Number of pages23
ISSN0307-5079
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Jun 2017

    Research areas

  • bibliometrics, gender, quantitative analysis, research funding, research performance

ID: 235585860