We at Pro-Sharp Research Center built a comprehensive research portal to precisely address this problem, investigating women's contributions and gender differences in anti-doping research through rigorous data analysis.
The Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences approached us to examine a critical yet overlooked question: How do women contribute to anti-doping science, and what role does gender play in research priorities, methodologies, and impact? While gender equality in science has attracted increasing attention, the specific dynamics in anti-doping research remained largely unexplored.
We analyzed 1,341 anti-doping publications from the Web of Science database spanning 1975-2021, using a triangulation approach that combines bibliometric mapping, network analysis, and content analysis. The system tracks authorship patterns, research topics, citation impact, and knowledge integration across the field. We identified key research clusters and measured authors' roles in connecting different research areas. We analyzed whether dominantly male vs. dominantly female papers differ in their research goal orientation, with a focus on scientific advancement versus societal progress.
The findings challenge common assumptions. Women scientists are significantly underrepresented; male authors outnumber female authors two-to-one. Men occupy most key authorship positions, with male corresponding authors in 774 out of 991 papers. However, here's where it gets interesting: women show higher information centrality in the author network (p=0.008), meaning they contribute more to multidisciplinary research. Among the twenty most cited authors, only five are women, but these five demonstrate long-term, stable performance with slightly more impactful contributions. Dominantly female papers focus more on scientific advancement, while dominantly male papers lean toward societal progress.
Examining gender dynamics in specialized scientific fields reveals patterns that shape research priorities and knowledge development. Women publish less and receive less funding in anti-doping science, yet they're better positioned for problem-focused multidisciplinary work, and their research shows greater impact. The gender gap in output doesn't translate to a gap in research quality, a finding with implications far beyond this field.
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