AN OVERVIEW OF BOTANICAL RESEARCH THROUGH A BRYOLOGICAL LENS:

GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN OF EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS AND ADVISOR GENDER INFLUENCE PUBLICATION SUCCESS

Resumo

The number of scientific publications produced by a researcher can be influenced by a range of factors, including their gender, line of research and relationship with the editor (i.e., author-editor relationship). Determining whether there are any biases in the publication process and, if so, which are most important, would greatly assist choosing a journal to disseminate research results and in addition, to chosing actions that mitigate installed bias. We performed a scientometric analysis of four broad-ranging famous botanical journals. Univariate and multivariate statistics and techniques of time series analysis were used to describe the profile of publications on bryophytes from a sample of 7,279 papers published by the four journals over a 12-year period. Papers on bryophytes made up only 1–2% of the sampled publications and men were the main advisors for both sexes. However, the most influential factor regarding the publication of papers on bryophytes was the geographic diversity of the editorial board. An editorial board with the majority of its members being from a given country is directly related to the number of papers published by researchers from that same country. We conclude that the greater number of men found composing author teams of the evaluated papers suggests some kind of gender discrimination. Prior evaluation of the editorial board of journals should be an important consideration before submitting manuscripts for publication. We suggest that journals should consider greater geographic diversity in the composition of their editorial boards.