ArticleNature neuroscience2020
The extent and drivers of gender imbalance in neuroscience reference lists.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 244 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
244 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Heartbeat-Evoked Responses in M/EEG: A Systematic Review of Methods With Suggestions for Analysis and Reporting.Psychophysiology · 2026Pooled it
- Gender bias in clinical trials of biological agents for migraine: A systematic review.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Functional connectivity subtypes during a positive mood induction: Predicting clinical response in a randomized controlled trial of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2025Trial
- Mindful attention promotes control of brain network dynamics for self-regulation and discontinues the past from the present.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Trial
- Employing Connectome-Based Models to Predict Working Memory in Multiple Sclerosis.Brain connectivity · 2022Trial
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- Mechanical Properties of Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty Balloon Catheters: A Bench Study.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Quantifying institutional gender inequality in contemporary visual art.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Authorship and citation trends in dementia research: A path to equitable career development for scientists.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Sparsity and memory constraints interact with training sequence to bias learning of associative maps.Neuropsychologia · 2026Article
- Collaborative relationships, disciplinary and global culture, social identity and scientific status shape how scholars cite prior work.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Network inequality through preferential attachment, triadic closure, and homophily.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Microsaccadic modulation in goal-directed reaching.Journal of vision · 2026Article
- Researcher population pyramids: Tracking demographic and gender trajectories across countries.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- The power of citation: giving credit where credit is due.Disease models & mechanisms · 2026Article
- Girls just wanna have funds: a new Transparent Reporting Scale for evaluating grant data reporting from funding agencies.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2026Article
- Habit learning is associated with efficiently controlled network dynamics in naive macaque monkeys.Npj complexity · 2026Article
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- When Matilda shows up: The double-edged impact of women researchers' media visibility in management science.PloS one · 2026Article
- Attribution of credit in acknowledgements: The case of systematic reviews in medicine.PloS one · 2026Article
184 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Similarly to many scientific disciplines, neuroscience has increasingly attempted to confront pervasive gender imbalances. Although publishing and conference participation are often highlighted, recent research has called attention to the prevalence of gender imbalance in citations. Because of the downstream effects of citations on visibility and career advancement, understanding the role of gender in citation practices is vital for addressing scientific inequity. Here, we investigate whether gendered patterns are present in neuroscience citations. Using data from five top neuroscience journals, we find that reference lists tend to include more papers with men as first and last author than would be expected if gender were unrelated to referencing. Importantly, we show that this imbalance is driven largely by the citation practices of men and is increasing over time as the field diversifies. We assess and discuss possible mechanisms and consider how researchers might approach these issues in their own work.
Indexed as
Identifiers
32561883What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.