Elsevier report on active paper authorship: Female authorship increases to over 40%, but 22% in Japan; "Progress Slow"

Elsevier (CEO: Kumsal Bayazit) is a world-famous academic journal publisher and information analysis firm. In June, it released the report Progress Towards Gender Equality in Research & Innovation -2024 Review. This report analyzes trends in gender inequality in research and innovation in Japan and worldwide. A Japanese summary version with analysis focusing on Japan was released in July (https://www.elsevier.com/ja-jp/insights/gender-and-diversity-in-research). The report is the continuation and expansion of the analysis of Elsevier's 2020 report, The Researcher Journey Through a Gender Lens.

Gender in science was analyzed through publication data from the company's Scopus (abstracts and citations database) over the past 20 years. The report compares 18 countries, including Japan, and those in the EU. However, countries such as China, where it is difficult to distinguish between men and women by name, are not included. The survey covers two decades through 2022. It shows that the percentage of women among active paper authors has increased from 29% to 41.4% worldwide. ("Active paper authors" means researchers who have published at least two peer-reviewed papers within five years and have maintained ongoing research activity.)

In Japan, the percentage of female authors has increased by 7% over the past decade, but progress has been slow. The figure was 22% as of 2022. If this trend continues, it is estimated that the 40% mark will not be reached until the early 2040s. While the percentage of women authors is increasing in all the covered countries, Japan has the lowest percentage. By country, Japan also has the lowest percentage of patent application teams at 17% with even one female member.

On the contrary, the picture is different in certain fields. These include STEM, agricultural and biological sciences, and materials science. Here, the percentage of papers written by Japanese women that are cited in patent applications is higher than the global average. It is also higher than that for Japanese men.

Miyoko Watanabe, a member of Elsevier's Inclusion and Diversity Advisory Board and a permanent board member of Nihon University, commented, "I believe that Japan can forward the advancement of women by promoting verification of the effects of diversity. I am in the field of physics, and up to now, scientific thinking has created easy-to-understand formulas by simplifying and ignoring what can be ignored. I believe it is also effective to come out of Asia with a way of thinking that does not ignore such minorities, people, and data, but emphasizes them. While doing so, we can move forward while proposing new ways of thinking about science. It has been proved that simply importing European approaches as-is will not work. It is important to share other ways of thinking in Japan as we move forward."