Dansk Center for Forskningsanalyse

Several studies have shown that female researchers have a lower publication productivity and research performance, however a recent published study based on 852 researchers publication data from 2003-2005 (van Arensbergen et al. 2012) found that the performance difference has leveled out for the younger generation of researchers (196 men and 160 women) in the social sciences.
The aim of this study is to investigate to what extend a similar tendency can be found among young female researchers in Denmark. Publication performance, in this study, is defined as the number of publications and the number of points to these publications assigned through national Danish publication indicator. Based on publication data reported to the national publication indicator from 2009-2011 (12313 publications) and survey data from Danish researchers gathered in 2011 (2092 respondents, 1306 men and 743 women), the present study shows that differences in publication performance between male and female researchers exist in Denmark. We find that when we compare research productivity among researchers in similar academic positions and in similar research areas, the male researchers still outperform their female colleagues.