Gender analysis, scholarly productivity and collaboration of female university professors of Health Science in the Autonomous Region of Valencia (2003-2007)

The article presents an analysis of the scholarly output of female professors in the field of Health Science in the Autonomous Region of Valencia from 2003 to 2007, through bibliometric techniques and the application of a gender variable. The work attempted to identify how many women became large producers of scholarly articles compared to those who did not reach the same levels of productivity and impact. A total of 3,739 articles were retrieved during this period and the gender of all authors with more than 2 articles was identified. Of these authors 2,774 (60.41%) were male and 1,818 (39.59%) were female. Focusing solely on large producers, the percentage of women publishing more than 10 papers was reduced to 26.72%. As regards to scientific collaboration, it is significant to note that women are included in all clusters of at least 10 authors and in some cases their presence is comparable with that of men. Although women's participation is lower than men's in all areas of knowledge, it is noteworthy that in Health Sciences the difference is not as great as in other technical areas. Women's contribution to the scientific field is increasing, suggesting the possibility of a significant improvement in gender parity in the coining years.