Research Knowledge and its Transmission: Key Case of Women in Science and Engineering

Abstract Research, knowledge, and publication are fundamental to science and scholarship. In this context, two important issues merit attention: 1) metrics that document the extent and growth of published knowledge in important research specialties; and 2) the transmission of knowledge to broader stakeholders. We address these, focusing on a key case: the research specialty of women in science and engineering. This specialty is theoretically important because it connects the hierarchical domain of science to those of gender and society. It also links to pressing issues of equity and access that bear on higher education. Ours is a multi-method approach. We analyze quantitative bibliometric data that profile the extent, growth, and impact of the specialty over time (publications from 1965 to 2010; citations through 2021). We connect this to an analysis of facilitators and barriers for broader transmission reported in interviews with representatives of eleven (11) leading agencies, foundations, national organizations and committees, and science media that had stakes in the research specialty during a critical period. The findings point to a strong and accelerating growth in publications and citations and show the intellectual span and concentration of the journals in which articles appear. Evidence is compelling that a large body of published knowledge has been available to those with stakes in the specialty. However, broader transmission faces challenges, including those of audiences, narrow focus, and limitations of an academic model of passive communication. Together, these findings are consequential in documenting strong metrics of published knowledge in the specialty, and combining and connecting these with interviews on features that contribute to, or hinder, transmission of this knowledge.