Networking equally important for women and men.

Live Stretmo points out that networks consist of both women and men.

Women network just like men

The Swedish Research Council's survey on gender equality in academia shows that women and men network to about the same extent. And why should it not be so? This is the question posed by Louise von Essen, a Professor at Uppsala University, who believes that women are increasingly following men's recipe for success and forming publication cartels.

ACCORDING TO THE Swedish Research Council's report, women and men are relatively consistent in their assessment of what the success factors in higher education are: scientific merit is the most important, followed by access to networks. When previous studies indicated that women have a lack of access to the second most important success factor, the report's survey shows that 87 percent of women and 91 percent of men have had the opportunity to develop networks.

Louise von Essen, Professor at the Department of Women's and Children's Health at Uppsala University, is not surprised. In recent years, she has seen how women are increasingly doing what men have been doing for a long time – including one another in their publications and forming so-called publication cartels. – You just have to take a look at what publication lists are like. You cannot have an unlimited number of people contributing scientifically to a piece of research. There are rules, the so-called Vancouver Protocol, which clarify what you must have contributed in order to be included in an article. You must have contributed significantly to the idea, analysis, reporting and a few other things. So how do some people manage to write 20 articles a year? The answer is that they do not really have time at all.

FREDRIK BONDESTAM,

Director of the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, sees nothing strange about

You have to have a completely different approach to understand what creates success within academia.

FREDRIK BONDESTAM

women also forming publication cartels. – It is quite natural that successful strategies will be imitated, all organisational cultures do it. But it is not obvious that it is precisely the networks you yourself have chosen to be part of that will lead to progress. The notion that formal published articles are the most important factor within academia, is a bit naive. It involves much more messy questions: about who knows who, about what the whole tree of dependence and co-dependence looks like. I don't put much faith in these types of network issues and statistics. You have to have a completely different approach to understand what creates success within academia.

TODAY, SEVERAL universities have information about the Vancouver Protocol on their websites. However, the issue of co-publication in cartels, or similar, is not addressed, it briefly states that “women and men essentially have the same opportunities to publish together with their supervisor, in the fields where co-publication is common”. However, women are often more critical of how the authorship system is applied and they also experience slightly less support that encourages publication.

Live Stretmo, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning, also thinks that it sounds reasonable that women today network as much as men. – And I think most people are aware that they must include senior associate professors and professors in order for it to result in research funding and so forth. My experience is that these networks consist of both women and men.

But according to Louise von Essen, publication cartels are a great injustice in the scientific world.

Photo: UPPSALA UNIVERSITY

– Those who are not involved in publishing cartels are disadvantaged, says Louise von Essen.

– THE PEOPLE WHO are not part of that type of network, or who do not want to be part of it because it goes against good research practice, are much worse off when you look at their track record.

Personally, she says that she has enough publications, but that she could have had more. – Intuitively, it bothered me not to follow the Vancouver Protocol. I have never experienced it as a problem, even though occasionally I may not have received a grant due to having too few publications.

Basically, she thinks that the number of publications is a useless measure of merit and that major research funders should therefore review how they assess merit – something that she also knows has been initiated. – If, as a researcher, you have 150 publications, it is interesting what you have contributed to all of these, and what benefit they in turn have had in the short and long term. It is only when we delve into these things that we get to grips with how to assess achievements.

Text: Lars Nicklason Photo: Johan Wingborg

FACTS

The Swedish Research Coun-

cil's report, Hur jämställt är det i högskolan? Kvinnors och mäns förutsättningar att bedriva forskning, is a gender equality study that focuses on women and men who have recently obtained a doctorate. The overall result is that women's and men's careers are essentially developing similarly. The so-called Vancouver Protocol recommends four criteria for authorship, all of which must be met. An author must have: 1. made substantial contributions to the project's idea and design, data collection or analysis, and interpretation of the data 2. written the first draft of the article or revised it critically with regard to important intellectual content 3. finally approved the article for publication 4. agreed to be held accountable for all aspects of the article, by ensuring that issues of accuracy and honesty have been properly investigated and ensured. The protocol adds that a co-author must know which other authors are responsible for the different parts of the study and have confidence that the other authors' contributions are valid.