Every so often you come across a compelling paper that challenges how you understand your profession.
Jim Witte, a fellow Clemson University faculty alum, published a paper that examined access to the American Review of Sociology.
Jim co-authored the paper with Kevin Nazar & Roberta Spalter-Roth. All of George Mason University.
The paper is here: https://lnkd.in/er7NHZsV
Their work presents evidence, based on analysis of actual submissions to the American Review of Sociology, that race, gender, & institutional affiliation matter in whether your paper earns a spot in a premier journal.
Additional analysis shows that when one introduces institutional affiliation, that race & gender effects disappear.
What does this tell us?
One could take a positive spin, that merit trumps race & gender in publication.
Except.
That positive spin of merit seems like a chimera.
Why?
Because elite schools offer access to more resources & lower teaching loads than non-elite schools.
This fact is important, because resources (money, support, & social networks) & time are necessary to conduct high quality research.
Witte & colleagues work tells us that women & racial minorities are at a disadvantage vis a vis men & white people, absent elite affiliation, for access to top journals.
However, their work offers a more nuanced understanding of how elite uni's perpetuate discrimination against women & racial minorities.
Why? Because white men are disproportionately represented on elite unis' faculty.
They demonstrate that submissions from elite institutions were less likely to be desk rejected than those from non-elite institutions - confirming what many suspect - that where you work matters in terms of your ability to get a fair shake.
What does this mean? For those of us? Outside of elite institutions?
It means that
(a) we have a harder time securing revisions required to to publish in elite outlets, (b) women & racial minorities have an even harder time publishing than white men in elite outlets, esp. if they do not work at elite schools, & (c) given (b) the demography of elite schools, it suggests that women & racial minorities will likely have a harder time building a record needed to secure a spot at an elite school.
This is important.
BC the most frequently heard refrain in many disciplines, including my own, is that there are not enough qualified applicants who are women or racial minorities.
But, what this evidence suggests, is how could there be?
The publication playing field is not level.
To effect positive change, we need to afford women & racial minorities access to resources and networks found at elite schools.
Until we do, we will never realize the vision of an academic world defined by merit as opposed to accidents of birth and affiliation.
Lets open the doors and build a better academy!
Yorumlar