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The Effect of COVID-19 on AGU Journal Authors by Gender and Geographical Location
  • Paige Wooden,
  • R. Brooks Hanson
Paige Wooden
American Geophysical Union

Corresponding Author:pwooden@agu.org

Author Profile
R. Brooks Hanson
American Geophysical Union
Author Profile

Abstract

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced institutions to close their physical spaces, many researchers and professors were required to work from home. Media outlets and individuals wondered if women specifically would be shouldering the childcare and/or homeschooling responsibilities, decreasing the time they had for professional activities. Preliminary analyses show mixed results: some have seen decreased submissions from women (Vincent-Lamarre et al., 2020; Del Boca et al., 2020), with at least one other showing an increase in submissions from women (Dolan & Lawless, 2020); and another suggests the rate of male-athored submissions to preprint archives are growing faster than those from women (Frederickson 2020). AGU has been monitoring our monthly submission data to understand how the pandemic and stay-at home orders are affecting our submissions from specific demographics—based on author gender, age, and country. Our analysis finds that the pandemic so far has not resulted in a decrease in submissions to AGU journals; nor has there so far been a decrease in the participation of women as submitting authors. Instead, we have seen an increase in submissions from most author groups compared to year-to-date numbers in previous years.