Authors’ gender and productivity as predictors of reciprocal dynamics in publications and citations in communication

Abstract Gender bias in academic publishing and citation practices in communication has been discussed extensively, yet the link between the two remains poorly understood. Does an author who publishes more articles automatically get cited more frequently—and what are the underlying author-level individual (e.g., gender, productivity) and article-level systemic (e.g., journal prestige) factors? We analyzed 57,283 articles and 507,706 citations from 85 communication journals between 2000 and 2022. We show that the number of publications significantly influences the number of citations. However, this dynamic does not benefit men and women equally: Although women publish more articles than men, women are cited less often than men. Journal prestige does not play a role. We argue that individual factors must be addressed through systemic change to close the gender publication–citation gap and foster fair academic recognition.