Men are more likely to cite themselves in essays

According to research, men are more likely to cite themselves in essays than women. 

New reports, from researchers at Stanford, NYU and the University of Washington, and lead authored by Molly M. King, have found that men are historically 56 per cent more likely to cite their own past research and authorial expertise in academic papers.

Before you scream bias, the articles they looked at pretty comprehensively confirm this assertion; 1.5 million JSTOR articles published between the years 1779 and 2011 were included in this study.

However, rather than slowing down in recent years – when you would arguably expect there to be statistically more women in each field to compare the evidence against – men continue to cite themselves 70 per cent more.

In fact, women are almost 10 per cent more likely to not cite themselves, unlike their male counterparts who seem to love life in their own private echo chamber.

Yet this doesn’t seem to be the only gender bias in academia. Women, who publish fewer papers than men already, are impacted not by lack of intelligence or talent, but by institutional forces beyond their control.

For example, the tendency for male faculty members to lean towards collaborating on papers with other men. This only puts women at an even greater disadvantage than before, considering their underrepresentation in the academic world.

When when you consider that the number of citations to your name often increases job opportunities and chances for tenure, it seems men are working to further only their own careers rather than foster the talent in their individual field. And as usual, women are the ones feeling the consequences.