Bibliometric Mapping of Gender Disparity in Research Publications in India during 1999-2018: A Case Study of Shimla District, Himachal Pradesh

Gender disparity and gender imbalance are globally pervasive in academia. Research into gender disparity characterizing gender differences uses metrics such as publication rates, author contributions, citation rates and research impact. Previous studies are contradictory in their findings and are limited in scope. As such, the current study examines the research contribution of both men and women in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. A Scopus search was used to identify all articles published over a 20-year period (1999-2018). For each article in the final sample of 2,881 publications, the gender the first author was identified. Both the number and the growth rate of publications by women were lower than those by men. Conversely, the growth in citation rate was higher for women in 2009 and 2016. Gender disparity was found to be highest at the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research and less severe at the HP Govt. Dental College.