Tracking Trends in Gender and STEM Publications

In this NSF-funded project  (NSF award# 0832913), Dr. Elizabeth G. Creamer created a database for tracking trends in gender and STEM publications.

There is now a sizable body of knowledge about factors related to women's recruitment and success in STEM fields. This project sought to contribute to the infrastructure or knowledge capital in the field by providing access to a set of visualizations that synthesize trends in this body of literature over time. These create the opportunity to promote scholarship and enhance practice in under-studied areas.

GOALS OF THE PROJECT

1. Trace changes over time in the topics and methods used to conduct research about gender and STEM.
2. Demonstrate the impact of funding on the generation of knowledge by tracking the percentage of publications reporting funding support over time.
3. Promote cross-disciplinary dialogue about programs and research designed to promote women's interest and success in STEM fields
4. Identify under-studied topics, methods, and groups.
5. Partner with the WEPAN Knowledge Center to provide access to a large database of over 900 articles about gender and STEM.

Who will find the TTGSP Visualizations Useful?

• Program officers at funding agencies looking to identify gaps in their portfolio (disciplines, methods, groups, and topics receiving the most and least funding).
• Grant writers seeking to strategically target a proposal by identifying areas where there has been little funded research.
• Graduate students and members of research teams aiming to analyze trends in the gender and STEM literature across disciplines and time periods, such as in quality.
• Evaluators seeking to situate summative results in the context of comparable initiatives.
• Educators in formal and informal STEM related programs wanting to locate recommendations for best practices prior to designing a new initiative.
• Consultants called on to provide STEM related expertise on a specific topic.
• Decision makers looking for evidence to support the effectiveness of a STEM related initiative.
• Policy makers seeking data to support the importance of funded educational research.

Methodology

Dr. Creamer searched the literature in three waves, beginning with all relevant articles in the ASEE and FIE processing and followed by all articles in the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. The result was slightly less than 1000 publications in the database published between 1995 and 2012.

Project Resources

• Project resources including an Excel file containing all publications in the database can be downloaded from this folder (link to dropbox folder)
• Access the online visualizations here
• Watch a recorded webinar with Dr. Elizabeth G. Creamer

‍