The following is a summary of “Gender dynamics and academic rank in emergency medicine collaboration networks: A social network and gender propensity analysis,” published in the September 2024 issue of Emergency Medicine by Walker et al.

Academic collaboration is supported by productivity, influenced by the connection between individuals, and gender disparities have been observed in academia, impacting progress and scholarly output.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to analyze gender-based disparities in collaboration patterns among Emergency medicine (EM) faculty at 2 Midwest academic departments using network analysis.

They identified faculty at 2 EM departments, academic rank, and publications from 2020 to 2022 and collected data on their co-authors. The collaboration network for differences between men and women was evaluated by network analysis, gender propensity, and standard statistical methods.

The results showed no difference in social network investigation of collaboration in academic EM in how men and women publish jointly. However, people with higher academic rank, regardless of gender, were more prominent in the collaboration network. Men showed an elevated tendency to collaborate with other men (59.6%), while women had a reduced tendency to collaborate with other women (44%). These gender propensity rates dropped between the gender ratios of EM (65%/35%) and the general population (50%/50%), indicating homophily among men.

Investigators concluded that further research on the application of network analysis to academic productivity, specifically focusing on the role of academic rank, could be beneficial.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675724003024