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Women, non-native English speakers and those from lower-income countries published fewer English-language peer-reviewed papers than men, native English speakers and those from higher-income countries, according to a study September 18 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Tatsuya Amano from the University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues.

UNESCO posits that "all scientists … have equal opportunity to access, contribute to and benefit from science, regardless of origin or circumstance." However, research reports rampant inequities; for example, women are less likely to hold a tenured position, scientists from lower-income countries are less funded than their higher-income counterparts and non-native English speakers experience language-related rejection up to 2.6 times more often than native English speakers. While science undoubtedly benefits from diverse people, ideas and approaches, few studies have assessed how gender, language and income affect scientific productivity.

To quantify barriers faced by scientists identifying as women, non-native English speakers and those from low-income countries, Amano surveyed 908 environmental scientists at varying career stages across eight nationalities: Bangladeshi, Bolivian, British, Japanese, Nepali, Nigerian, Spanish, and Ukrainian. Amano measured each scientist's productivity, defined as their total number of English and non-English publications.

Results revealed that women—especially early-career women—published 45% fewer English-language papers than men. Women with non-English first languages published 60% fewer papers, and women with non-English first languages from low-income countries published 70% fewer, compared to men with English as the first language from high-income countries.

When the researchers factored in English and non-English scientific publications, they noticed the proportions change. Non-native English speakers at early to mid-career stages published more peer-reviewed papers than native English speakers. Additionally, scientists from lower-income countries published more papers than those from higher-income countries. Even with English and non-English papers combined, women still published fewer articles than men.

The researchers write that these statistics could be erroneously used to position women, non-native English speakers and those from low-income countries as less scientifically productive. They call for an explicit effort to consider gender, income and native language and support incorporating non-English-language publications when assessing scientists' performance.

The authors add, "This study highlights how language, economic status, and gender combine to create a significant and often overlooked productivity gap in science, especially when measured by English-language publications. We believe that this gap is not a true reflection of individual productivity. Rather, as a growing body of evidence shows, it stems from systemic barriers that continue to limit fair participation and full contribution to science by historically and currently underrepresented groups."