The State of Gender Bias in Scientific Publishing
Published in Healthcare & Nursing, Astronomy, and Social Sciences
The gender gap in scientific publishing remains a persistent issue. Our recent Gender Gap Report offers a look into how gender disparities manifest in the Nature Portfolio publishing pipeline, and what can be done to address them.
A recent analysis of gender representation throughout the publishing process at Nature Portfolio looked at ~215,000 corresponding authors of submitted articles, alongside self-reported gender data for 42,000 reviewers for a subset of these articles.
The findings highlight persistent disparities: men dominate corresponding author submissions across all disciplines, and women are especially underrepresented in the most selective journals.
Reassuringly, the data show no evidence of editorial or reviewer bias. In fact, articles from women submitting corresponding authors are slightly more likely to be sent for review, and acceptance rates improve when mixed-gender reviewer panels are involved. Editors also play a key role in boosting representation through commissioned review articles, where women make up 23% of corresponding authors.
The report highlights the power of proactive editorial policies, training, and outreach in shaping a more inclusive publishing landscape. While challenges remain (including beyond gender diversity), transparency, commitment, and thoughtful editorial practices can drive meaningful change.
The power of early career researchers
One intervention within Nature journals that we have found can help narrow the gender gap in peer review is our co-review initiative, where established reviewers can co-review an article together with an early-career researcher of their choice. In 2024, 4,311 established reviewers for Nature Communications included an early career researcher in the peer review process. 40% of early career researchers recruited to the review process were women, compared to only 21% among established reviewers, showing how such initiatives have the potential to increase gender diversity among reviewers. Similarly, through a deliberate focus on early career researchers and expansion of the reviewer network, Nature Metabolism has increased gender diversity in its pool of reviewers from 18% to 32% over a four-year period.
At Springer Nature, we are committed to supporting gender diversity at every step of the publishing journey. If you are an early career researcher looking for opportunities to grow your expertise, network, and develop your career, discover how you can join the Springer Nature Reviewer Community and contribute to a positive change in publishing.
Sowmya Swaminathan is Director, External DEI, Research at Springer Nature and a member of Springer Nature’s DEI Council. She leads Springer Nature’s efforts to bring a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens to research publishing activities across the journals and books publishing programme. She was previously Head of Editorial Policy & Research Integrity for Nature Portfolio where she was responsible for policies and initiatives that advance transparency, integrity, open research practices and inclusion in scholarly publishing. She began her career in scholarly publishing as an editor at Nature Cell Biology where she subsequently served as Chief Editor for 6 years. Prior to entering scholarly publishing, Sowmya completed her PhD at the University of Chicago and carried out postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany.
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