The career cost of COVID-19 to female researchers, and how science should respond

Some funders and journals are trying to support female researchers and others whose publications and positions are at risk.

Early data on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on scientific-publishing output suggest that female researchers, particularly those at early-career stages, are the hardest hit. Submissions to preprint servers, such as arXiv, rose more quickly for male authors than for female authors as nations adopted social-isolation measures. And female authors have accounted for only one-third of all authors on published COVID-19 papers since January 2020.

As a consequence of the pandemic, female researchers’ positions might be at risk. For example, a May report found that female scientists in Australia, who are 1.5 times more likely to be in casual or short-term contract jobs, are more likely to lose jobs, paid hours and career opportunities than are their male counterparts.

For female scientists, the pandemic also poses a significant threat to hard-won gender-equity gains achieved over the past few decades. Nature asked journal editors, funders and academic leaders how to mitigate those threats.

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