Gender Distribution in Scholarly Communication at AAU During the Pandemic. What Does the Data Say?

The COVID-19 pandemic undisputedly had an impact on research and research environments. The extent and possible lasting effects of which are still to be determined. Aspects of the development have already been examined in several international publications. The intention with the present study is to examine the possible effects on Aalborg University regarding gender equality, when looking at possible changes in:
- Publication distribution
- Press cuttings
- BFI points

Method
The data from 2020/21 is compared with data from the preceding 5 years (2015-2019). Data will be drawn from the local PURE installation at AAU. The data collected will be examined on faculty level, giving us the possibility to including the broad scope of the technical, medical, social sciences and humanities.

Preliminary Results
We can confirm aspects of results found in literature, but on the other hand other tendencies are displayed in our local statistics. An example are the PhD-students, were we see the tendency that the female PhD-students publish less in more prestigious journals than their male counterparts, and more in the less prestigious during 2019-2020. Another example is Press cuttings, which show that young female scholars from AAU have a stronger presence in Danish media outlets in 2020 than before.
This presentation is part of a more extensive study. When data from 2021 and 2022 becomes available, this will also be included, e.g., to verify if the possible changes detected may regress as time goes by.