{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,26]],"date-time":"2025-12-26T07:14:01Z","timestamp":1766733241692,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,24]],"date-time":"2022-02-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1645660800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Publications"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The research discipline of computer science (CS) has a well-publicized gender disparity. Multiple studies estimate the ratio of women among publishing researchers to be around 15\u201330%. Many explanatory factors have been studied in association with this gender gap, including differences in collaboration patterns. Here, we extend this body of knowledge by looking at differences in collaboration patterns specific to various fields and subfields of CS. We curated a dataset of nearly 20,000 unique authors of some 7000 top conference papers from a single year. We manually assigned a field and subfield to each conference and a gender to most researchers. We then measured the gender gap in each subfield as well as five other collaboration metrics, which we compared to the gender gap. Our main findings are that the gender gap varies greatly by field, ranging from 6% female authors in theoretical CS to 42% in CS education; subfields with a higher gender gap also tend to exhibit lower female productivity, larger coauthor groups, and higher gender homophily. Although women published fewer single-author papers, we did not find an association between single-author papers and the ratio of female researchers in a subfield.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/publications10010010","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,24]],"date-time":"2022-02-24T21:11:07Z","timestamp":1645737067000},"page":"10","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Gender Differences in Collaboration Patterns in Computer Science"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Josh","family":"Yamamoto","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Reed College, 3203 Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97202, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3709-1829","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eitan","family":"Frachtenberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Reed College, 3203 Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97202, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Falkner, K., Szabo, C., Michell, D., Szorenyi, A., and Thyer, S. (2015, January 3\u20135). Gender gap in academia: Perceptions of female computer science academics. Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, New York, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2729094.2742595"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1740","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1700616114","article-title":"Opinion: Gender diversity leads to better science","volume":"114","author":"Nielsen","year":"2017","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Burke, R.J., and Mattis, M.C. (2007). Upstream and downstream in the engineering pipeline: What\u2019s blocking US women from pursuing engineering careers. Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics: Upping the Numbers, Edward Elgar Publishing."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"666","DOI":"10.1080\/09589236.2015.1087309","article-title":"The trouble with \u2018women in computing\u2019: A critical examination of the deployment of research on the gender gap in computer science","volume":"25","author":"Vitores","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Gend. Stud."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Charman-Anderson, S., Kane, L., and Meadows, A. (2017). Championing the success of women in science, technology, engineering, maths, and medicine: A collection of thought pieces from members of the academic community. VOCED Digit. Sci., 10."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"72","DOI":"10.1145\/1978542.1978561","article-title":"Gender and Computing Conference Papers","volume":"54","author":"Cohoon","year":"2011","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Holman, L., Stuart-Fox, D., and Hauser, C.E. (2018). The gender gap in science: How long until women are equally represented?. PLoS Biol., 16.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pbio.2004956"},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"National Science Board (US) (2020). The State of US, Science and Engineering."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Way, S.F., Larremore, D.B., and Clauset, A. (2016, January 11\u201315). Gender, productivity, and prestige in computer science faculty hiring networks. Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on World Wide Web, Montreal, QC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1145\/2872427.2883073"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Zweben, S., and Bizot, B. (2018). 2017 CRA Taulbee Survey. Comput. Res. News, 30."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"78","DOI":"10.1145\/3430803","article-title":"Gender Trends in Computer Science Authorship","volume":"64","author":"Wang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"773","DOI":"10.1007\/s11218-020-09558-y","article-title":"Factors that contribute to the underrepresentation of women in science careers worldwide: A literature review","volume":"23","author":"Avolio","year":"2020","journal-title":"Soc. Psychol. Educ."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"511","DOI":"10.1016\/j.respol.2017.12.006","article-title":"A tie is a tie? Gender and network positioning in life science inventor collaboration","volume":"47","author":"Whittington","year":"2018","journal-title":"Res. Policy"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"673","DOI":"10.1177\/0306312705052359","article-title":"The impact of research collaboration on scientific productivity","volume":"35","author":"Lee","year":"2005","journal-title":"Soc. Stud. Sci."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"599","DOI":"10.1016\/j.respol.2004.01.008","article-title":"Scientists\u2019 collaboration strategies: Implications for scientific and technical human capital","volume":"33","author":"Bozeman","year":"2004","journal-title":"Res. Policy"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"290","DOI":"10.1007\/s12108-008-9042-1","article-title":"Collaborative research in sociology: Trends and contributing factors","volume":"39","author":"Hunter","year":"2008","journal-title":"Am. Sociol."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"54","DOI":"10.1177\/016224399602100103","article-title":"Child care, research collaboration, and gender differences in scientific productivity","volume":"21","author":"Kyvik","year":"1996","journal-title":"Sci. Technol. Hum. Values"},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"316","article-title":"Disadvantage of women by the ordinary processes of science: The case of informal collaboration","volume":"57","author":"Scott","year":"1990","journal-title":"Despite Odds Essays Can. Women Sci."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zeng, X.H.T., Duch, J., Sales-Pardo, M., Moreira, J.A., Radicchi, F., Ribeiro, H.V., Woodruff, T.K., and Nunes Amaral, L.A. (2016). Differences in collaboration patterns across discipline, career stage, and gender. PLoS Biol., 14.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pbio.1002573"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"517","DOI":"10.1007\/s11192-007-2046-8","article-title":"Gender differences in research productivity: A bibliometric analysis of the Italian academic system","volume":"79","author":"Abramo","year":"2009","journal-title":"Scientometrics"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4609","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1914221117","article-title":"Historical comparison of gender inequality in scientific careers across countries and disciplines","volume":"117","author":"Huang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1038\/504211a","article-title":"Bibliometrics: Global gender disparities in science","volume":"504","author":"Ni","year":"2013","journal-title":"Nat. News"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Symonds, M.R., Gemmell, N.J., Braisher, T.L., Gorringe, K.L., and Elgar, M.A. (2006). Gender differences in publication output: Towards an unbiased metric of research performance. PLoS ONE, 1.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0000127"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"921","DOI":"10.1080\/01425692.2011.596387","article-title":"Do women publish fewer journal articles than men? Sex differences in publication productivity in the social sciences","volume":"32","year":"2011","journal-title":"Br. J. Sociol. Educ."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mihaljevic-Brandt, H., Santamaria, L., and Tullney, M. (2016). The effect of gender in the publication patterns in mathematics. PLoS ONE, 11.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0165367"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"141","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.p20171126","article-title":"Recognition for group work: Gender differences in academia","volume":"107","author":"Sarsons","year":"2017","journal-title":"Am. Econ. Rev."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1750011","DOI":"10.1142\/S0219525917500114","article-title":"Gender disparities in science? Dropout, productivity, collaborations and success of male and female computer scientists","volume":"21","author":"Jadidi","year":"2018","journal-title":"Adv. Complex Syst."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ghiasi, G., Larivi\u00e8re, V., and Sugimoto, C.R. (2015). On the compliance of women engineers with a gendered scientific system. PLoS ONE, 10.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0145931"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"497","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2021.3114787","article-title":"Gender in 30 Years of IEEE Visualization","volume":"28","author":"Tovanich","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Frachtenberg, E., and Kaner, R. (2021, January 14\u201319). Representation of women in HPC conferences. Proceedings of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC\u201921), St. Louis, MI, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/3458817.3476164"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1393","DOI":"10.1016\/j.respol.2011.07.002","article-title":"How do men and women differ in research collaborations? An analysis of the collaborative motives and strategies of academic researchers","volume":"40","author":"Bozeman","year":"2011","journal-title":"Res. Policy"},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Hengel, E. (2017). Publishing while Female. Are women held to higher standards? Evidence from peer review. Camb. Work. Pap. Econ."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"West, J.D., Jacquet, J., King, M.M., Correll, S.J., and Bergstrom, C.T. (2013). The role of gender in scholarly authorship. PloS ONE, 8.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0066212"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Duch, J., Zeng, X.H.T., Sales-Pardo, M., Radicchi, F., Otis, S., Woodruff, T.K., and Nunes Amaral, L.A. (2012). The possible role of resource requirements and academic career-choice risk on gender differences in publication rate and impact. PLoS ONE, 7.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0051332"},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Falk-Krzesinski, H.J., Herbert, R., Huggett, S., and Tobin, S. (2017). Gender in the Global Research Landscape, Elsevier."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e003362","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2013-003362","article-title":"Differences in research funding for women scientists: A systematic comparison of UK investments in global infectious disease research during 1997\u20132010","volume":"3","author":"Head","year":"2013","journal-title":"BMJ Open"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Frachtenberg, E., and Kaner, R.D. (2022). Underrepresentation of women in computer systems research. arXiv.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0266439"},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Patterson, D.A., Snyder, L., and Ullman, J. (1999). Evaluating Computer Scientists and Engineers For Promotion and Tenure. Comput. Res. News."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1145\/1035134.1035153","article-title":"The health of research conferences and the dearth of big idea papers","volume":"47","author":"Patterson","year":"2004","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2674","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.23349","article-title":"Conferences versus journals in computer science","volume":"66","author":"Vrettas","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e299","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj-cs.299","article-title":"A Survey of Accepted Authors in Computer Systems Conferences","volume":"6","author":"Frachtenberg","year":"2020","journal-title":"PeerJ Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Karimi, F., Wagner, C., Lemmerich, F., Jadidi, M., and Strohmaier, M. (2016, January 11\u201315). Inferring gender from names on the web: A comparative evaluation of gender detection methods. Proceedings of the 25th International Conference Companion on World Wide Web, Montreal, QC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1145\/2872518.2889385"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"74","DOI":"10.1145\/3376901","article-title":"A Bibliometric Approach for Detecting the Gender Gap in Computer Science","volume":"63","author":"Mattauch","year":"2020","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e156","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj-cs.156","article-title":"Comparison and benchmark of name-to-gender inference services","volume":"4","author":"Santamaria","year":"2018","journal-title":"PeerJ Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Squazzoni, F., Bravo, G., Dondio, P., Farjam, M., Marusic, A., Mehmani, B., Willis, M., Birukou, A., and Grimaldo, F. (2021, October 26). No evidence of any systematic bias against manuscripts by women in the peer review process of 145 scholarly journals. SocarXiv, Available online: https:\/\/osf.io\/preprints\/socarxiv\/gh4rv\/.","DOI":"10.31235\/osf.io\/gh4rv"},{"key":"ref_46","first-page":"77","article-title":"Data and Techniques Used for Analysis of Women Authorship in STEMM: A Review","volume":"2","author":"Bhagat","year":"2018","journal-title":"Fem. Res."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"353","DOI":"10.1007\/s11192-007-1822-9","article-title":"The future of single-authored papers","volume":"73","author":"Abt","year":"2007","journal-title":"Scientometrics"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"123","DOI":"10.2307\/2786835","article-title":"Informal networks and organizational crises: An experimental simulation","volume":"51","author":"Krackhardt","year":"1988","journal-title":"Soc. Psychol. Q."},{"key":"ref_49","first-page":"88","article-title":"The specific shapes of gender imbalance in scientific authorships: A network approach","volume":"11","author":"Fontainha","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Inf."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"487","DOI":"10.1111\/spc3.12042","article-title":"Navigating social roles in pursuit of important goals: A communal goal congruity account of STEM pursuits","volume":"7","author":"Diekman","year":"2013","journal-title":"Soc. Personal. Psychol. Compass"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.1145\/543812.543836","article-title":"Unlocking the Clubhouse: The Carnegie Mellon Experience","volume":"34","author":"Fisher","year":"2002","journal-title":"SIGCSE Bull."},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"45","DOI":"10.1002\/ir.20275","article-title":"Disciplinary Field Specificity and Variation in the STEM Gender Gap","volume":"179","author":"Sax","year":"2018","journal-title":"New Dir. Institutional Res."},{"key":"ref_53","unstructured":"Frachtenberg, E. (2022, February 15). Systems Conferences Analysis Dataset. Available online: https:\/\/zenodo.org\/record\/5590575#.Yhb6-pYRWUk."}],"container-title":["Publications"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6775\/10\/1\/10\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T22:26:18Z","timestamp":1760135178000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6775\/10\/1\/10"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,24]]},"references-count":53,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3]]}},"alternative-id":["publications10010010"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/publications10010010","relation":{},"ISSN":["2304-6775"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2304-6775"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,24]]}}}